The Grimm Brothers' fairy tales are explicitly violent, and Edgar Allan Poe's tales of terror frightened us without the mention of assault weapons. Our actions and feelings are motivated by our perceptions of violence. Statistics do little to calm our fears when the evening news reports a gruesome murder or a shooting in an elementary school. Our perceptions are fed by an unrestrained media, both in entertainment and news, that drives a continual escalation of sensationalism, generating new levels of horror as we become satiated to old ones. If the general numbers do not reveal an overall increase in violent incidents, they do tell us that violence against children is rapidly increasing.
Violence is more random and senseless than ever.
Whereas at one time a person might have been murdered for money, now it might be for wearing the wrong hat. It seems as if we are all wearing targets on our backs, even inside our once safe homes. Headlines of drive-by shootings and kidnappings of children from their bedroom windows have not only spearheaded calls for tougher laws, but are increasing our need to safeguard ourselves from the bad guys. We no longer freely walk our streets or stroll in our parks. Our welcome mats have been replaced by security systems and weapons.