[onewhippedpuppy]

As a kid years ago I played cowboys and indians, cops and robbers, army, etc with my friends. Plastic guns or "weapons" cobbled from my buddy's dad's wood scraps. We killed each other hundreds of times over. The same games have been played for generations. For whatever reason we humans have an attraction to violence, though the vast majority of us are stable enough to not act on it. I think on average we are probably safer today than we have been in decades, unfortunately there are a few loonies that come unhinged in very public ways.