Rising Gun Violence - Back Home...

So over the last couple days I've read alot of news articles about the happenings in the US and Canada...and it made me thankful that I'm over here - where it's safe!

Here are some headlines:

Toronto Gun Violence As Politicians Debate Solutions (CBC News) - over the last couple of months, there have been an unusally large number of shootings in very public places (the Eaton Centre, street parties, etc)

Police Hunt for Two Suspects Near French River (The Sudbury Star) - two men were standing on the side of the highway near a popular rest stop shooting at moving traffic

'Dark Knight Rises' Screening Shotting in Suburban Denver Leaves 12 Dead, 58 Injured (NY Daily News) - a young man threw a tear gas cannister into a crowded movie theatre and started shooting at the crowd

Canadian Cities Largely Safe but Rising Gun Violence 'Disturbing' (CBC News)
We Live With Guns So We Live with Deaths (The Sudbury Star)
Toronto's Gun Violence Reaches a New Low (The Globe and Mail)
Timeline: A History of Gun Violence in Canada and the US (The Globe and Mail)

Why are guns and violence increasing in North America?  Who knows for certain.  Some speculate that is has to do with increasing immigrant populations bringing their gang cultures to Canada and the US.  Others think that the youth are bored and need more social programs.  Whatever the reasons are, it is a disturbing trend to see so close to my hometown.  And it makes me glad not to be a part of it.  The randomness and the frequency of these occurances are unnerving.  Do you feel safe?

I wonder what motivates these people towards this kind of violence.  Do they not realize how good they have it?  They live in the free-est nations in the world.  What more do they want?  What are they trying to prove with this violence?  At least here, where there is violence in the Eastern parts of the country, people are fighting for something.  For the right to use their native language.  For the right to have freedom of speech.  For the right to be free in this 'democratic, secular society'.  While violence rages there with shootings and bombings, at least the attacks are localized and do not involve (for the most part) children and civilians.  They are directed at the present government. There are large political rallies all the time here in the national capital of Turkey, people group together all the time to protest education reforms, political reforms, you name it - always in the central downtown region, close to the central subway system and my path to work - but I have never once felt unsafe.