This column isn’t what most people want to read. If you think the world is all rainbows and butterflies, you might as well quit reading now. Otherwise, if you’d like a wake up call, continue reading.

At least once a week, it seems like I hear the now-popular phrase, “What is this world coming to?” You might not want to hear this, but listen up. Newsflash, the world isn’t coming to anything. As a matter of fact, this isn’t even something new for the world. You can pretend that the world used to be perfect with no violence, but the reality is, murder and violence have been occurring as long as people have been around.

We can play the numbers game for hours. I can throw out all sorts of facts about how some of the largest mass murders haven’t even happened in this decade. In the Bible, the first instance of violence occurred when Cain killed his younger brother Abel. This was the first murder that took place, according to my beliefs.

The first thing we need to ask is why people kill. People kill for all sorts of reasons. You have the jealous killers who murder out of jealousy, whether that be because of adultery or some other provocation. Another type of killer is one who kills for vengeance. Some believe that such horrific acts like the Columbine shooting and the Sandy Hook shooting were because of bullying. Some killers with blood on their mind have their eyes set on specific targets.

And then you have the crazies. Although so many murderers try the insanity plea, there are only a handful of them who are actually insane — that’s not to say that killing someone isn’t always insane.

Once again, I can throw out all sorts of facts about how the Second Amendment is actually effective and has been proven to stop mass murderers. This column isn’t about the issue of gun control, although, for those who have read my previous columns, I’m sure they can guess my stance about the right to carry.

But how can we prepare for these incidents?

First off, you must get the “perfect world” picture out of your head because the fact of the matter is, the world is not perfect and never will be. You have to understand that anything can happen at any time. Attacks have happened in some of the biggest cities along with little holes in the wall, but I can guarantee you, that no one expected a shooting in little old Newtown, Conn.

By all means, you can’t walk around being scared your entire life, but people need to get out of their mind that they are invincible.

Second, instead of teaching us about the shootings in the classroom, why not teach kids what to do in case something like that happens to them? I’m talking about lockdown drills, giving kids the tools they need to know about what to do in case they are attacked.

Lastly, schools need to stop sugar coating everything. Definitely don’t tell third graders that there is a chance that someone is going to come into the school and kill all of them, but by the time they graduate from high school and enter the real world, they need to know that the world isn’t exactly what it is cracked up to be.

In my years of high school, I had a total of three teachers that never sugar coated anything. One of them once told me that in case something ever happened, we wouldn’t just be sitting at our desks and hiding in the corner. Instead, we would be fighting for our lives.

That is my idea of the perfect teacher.

Possibly the thing that gets me the most is the people who decide to take their own life after going on a rampage. Not a single person goes on a rampage and then decides to end their own life; they have made that decision long before starting their horrific act. For a person to take someone’s life away from them only to take his own life shortly after is probably the worst thing that someone can do.

Suicide is never the answer. Ever. End of story. It’s selfish, and it’s the coward’s way out of life. But to take someone’s life that want to live is just selfish on so many levels.

Next, the issue at hand is what we can do to stop the murderers. Here’s the answer, plain and simple: you can’t. It’s not possible. World peace will never happen, and I am sorry to spoil your dream if you think that some day it will become a thing, but it’s not possible.

There will always be hate in the world, despite what you might have been told.

And lastly, the question is: What should we do with the murderers that we have caught? As much as I would love to say, “Flip the switch and let them fry,” I probably shouldn’t say that in a collegiate newspaper. The alternative is to lock them up and let them rue the day they were born. I don’t know about you, but I would prefer to not waste my hard earned money paying taxes so that a murderer can sit in a jail cell.

Here’s the God honest truth: Earth is a horrible place. People steal; people are killed; and people are raped. That’s the bottom line. Humanity is a disgusting concept. We steal from others who have earned what they have instead of earning it ourselves. We kill someone if they look at us the wrong way. We take advantage of others for easy pleasure.

Wake up and smell the roses, people. Instead of asking yourself what happened to the world, ask yourself how you can fix the problem.