In my novel "Black Friday" published last October, two heavily armed Arab terrorists entered the fictional Galleria Mall in Maryland plotting to carry out an unprecedented terrorist attack on American soil during the busiest shopping day of the year. Today a heavily armed man entered the Columbia Mall in Howard County, Maryland and killed two people in a second floor store before killing himself.
First, we need to pray for those affected by the attack whether it be the victims, their families and friends or those who were inside the mall at the time of the shooting. Second, the parallels between "Black Friday" and today's shooting are too much not to ignore. Just months after the attack at the Westgate Mall in Kenya, it was only a matter of time before a heavily armed person would enter a mall in the United States and kill people in the process. I remember speaking to a group of friends while I was in college about Columbine which at the time had just happened. I said to them that "With this generation of grade and high school students at the present, we are going to see shootings at colleges in the future." Tragically Virginia Tech took place in April, 2007 and have since repeated itself throughout the United States several times over including a few occasions this week. I hate to say this, but we have now graduated to attacking shopping malls. I'm very concerned that this won't be the last shooting/attack at a mall, but quite possibly the first of many. After that festivals, dance/nightclubs, concerts and sporting events will likely experience this disturbing trend if we are not vigilant when it comes to preventing this from continuing.
As Americans we must do everything we can in order to prevent this from happening again. Therefore we must educate ourselves about this threat as well as the root causes of violence. Therefore we will become aware of the potential causes and prevent future incidents such as today's from occurring in the future.
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