Is Horrible Violence the New Norm?

The crime in the city in which I live now is so much worse than it was where I came from.  Most of the crime from home was domestic assault and burglary.  I think on average, a pharmacy would get held up at least once a week by someone looking for prescription drugs.  You'd hear of gun violence, but it wasn't often and it certainly wasn't happening to people minding their own business, walking down the street or going about their daily lives.  Granted, I came from a place with some of the lowest violence stats in the nation. So, anywhere I moved to would feel dangerous.  But here, every day, there are horrible stories of violence. Murder is a common story on the evening news. Murder, always. Shootings, shootings and more shootings; hold ups, drive-by, walk-by, run-by... whatever you can do with a gun, it's happening here.  For a two week stretch, there were shootings every day and bodies turning up all over the place with gunshot wounds. Seemingly random, awful things were happening.  Some gang related, but some not. There was a day where three people were shot in one morning, within a three hour time frame. Then there are the stranglings, the missing women feared dead, the bodies that occasionally float up to the surface of some river or bog.  Oh, don't for get the machete attacks, or just regular knife attacks.  The car jackings.  Hmmm what am I forgetting?  Oh yes, my personal favorite, the home invasions. I'm certain there are other horrible things that I can't recall; or subconsciously choose not to.What the hell is going on here? How do people become such animals where they are capable of such behavior?  Of taking someone else's life?  Of hurting another so viciously?  There is no regard for the life of another!  How can that be?

Life- it's such a gift, such a precious thing.  The loves we have worked so hard at and cultivated to near perfection.  The routines of our lives so comfortable and familiar. The careers we've worked so hard at, the families we've raised, the weddings, birthdays, holidays... hell, EVERYDAY that we are given.  Such a GIFT!  Such a gift.  And to have it taken by the horrible and selfish act of another?  Well, I just can't even begin to comprehend it.  The stakes are so high the impact so deep.  I can't comprehend it.

I think about my family's safety a lot, as well as my own.   The odds of us being victims of a crime are greater now than they used to be. It scares the shit out of me.