Like Ebola and ISIS, the shooting is spreading fear around the world. It is not unnatural to experience fear as a reaction to danger. However, reacting out of fear instead of wisdom is the mistake we must stop making.
 
What happened in Ottawa is also a reminder for me that while we can't remove all violence, we can take steps as a country to reduce it. In 2011, the last year complete numbers are available, 31,897 died in America due to gun related deaths. In Canada, 2009 is the last year complete numbers are available, but the total number of gun related deaths for that year is 730. While gun violence can happen anywhere, as Ottawa shows, it happens much more in the United States than any other developed country.