As I am writing this, I join the nation as it mourns the lives that have been tragically cut short due to an act of evil in Florida. Not only have those precious lives been lost, but people have lost their friends and family to the insidious actions of an individual.
I have also written an article that I have been working on for a couple of weeks. Where I have had to investigate how a similar situation was handled here at the University of Wyoming. On Dec. 31, a suspect that was the cause for increased security at the college of law shot and killed a police officer. I had known of the increased security back in November but was shocked to learn how close that shooting was to my community.
I started off with a simple question, why wasn’t everyone notified? Where I sit right now, as a student and a Branding Iron writer, I would say we all should have been told. Yet, if I was in Chief Mike Samp’s or General Counsel Tara Evans’s shoes, I could not say I would be so certain.
The point of my article was not to tell you one way or the other, but it was to provide you with facts about how this decision came to be. So that we can all create a dialogue about what should have happened.
I believe that is the duty of the press, to ask the questions and get people to start thinking. When I had heard the news of the tragedy in Florida, I was hesitant to write the article as some might think it was crass or I was being unethical in pushing a narrative about a similar situation so soon.
However, after talking with my editors, we decided to go forward with publishing the story. Yes, the story I have written has a lot of parallels to the more recent tragedy, both shooters had made comments on social media that caused them to be looked at closer before they committed their acts.
Yet, both shooters came to commit their acts after authorities had been notified. I am still grappling with what needs to be done, because I have very strong convictions that we can not give up our liberties for increased security, but I also empathize with those who have lost loved ones to these acts of violence. We can not punish people who have not committed a crime while all they have done is say something that makes others feel unsafe.
Thus, I am calling upon this community to engage in discourse, to look to each other and reach common ground. I am also calling on this community to reach out and provide love and support to those who have been harmed by tragedy.
