Aurora Theater Shooting: We Can’t Prevent Every Possible Disaster From Happening [OPINION]

The world we live in has changed dramatically in the last 15 years in regards to public safety and the threat of terrorism. As the Aurora theater shooting civil trial commences, we may possibly see, in extreme measure, exactly how things have changed.

As the Denver Post reports, the families of the victims believe that theater owner Cinemark should be held accountable for the 2012 shooting that left 12 people dead. They say security was inadequate and that the theater should have had armed guards in place, and alarms to go off when James Holmes entered the facility with a gun.

This was a tragedy. And it is terrible for the victims and their families. Is the theater responsible for these deaths?

A shooting like this could happen anywhere, be it in a movie theater, a restaurant, a shopping mall, a church, the ball park --even  your work place or office. Has it come to this - that every single establishment that opens its doors to the public be required to have armed guards and metal detectors? The notion seems ludicrous.

Whenever there is a tragedy like this, or a terrorist attack, we always try to figure out what preventative action could have and should have been taken to keep it from happening. In some cases, sure, perhaps reasonable preventative measures could have been taken. But, quite often, there really is nothing that could have been done to prevent it.

But, the fact is, we can not possibly predict and prevent every possible disaster, tragedy, or terrorist attack. We can not make provision for every possible scenario that could play out. It's not practical, and it's not possible.

Even if we take every reasonable precaution and safeguard, the presence of the crazies of this world will still present an unknown factor and the possibility of an attack that could not be foreseen or prevented.

We do need to be diligent when it comes to safety, and this is not to say that we should do nothing to try and make our world a safer place to live. But, we need to be practical, reasonable, and realistic.

Every bad thing that happens to people does not necessarily require the placing of blame or fault. Bad things are going to happen no matter what we do or don't do. We don't live in a perfect world - and we never will.

While we mourn the loss of lives in Aurora, and we sympathize with the families, I believe we have no choice but to accept the shooting as the unfortunate and tragic result of the society we live in.