Imagine you are going to the mall to do some casual shopping on a Wednesday afternoon. You are focused on getting ready for the holidays and trying to beat the rush. It's an activity that most ofus do on a regular basis this time of year, right? It never occurs to us that there is potential danger involved in this.

Well this festive mindset is probably the same one that the employees and shoppers had at the Von Maur store just outside of Omaha, Nebraska yesterday. But noone expected Robert A. Hawkins to show up. His presence at the Westroads Mall yesterday would change the lives of the people there forever.

Hawkins, 19, opened fire in the department store at about 2 PM yesterday. In his shooting spree, he killed eight others before taking his own life. Reports from the witnesses of the event describe utter chaos in the store that day. Many of the people killed were actually employees of the store. Hawkins left a suicide note which said that he wanted to be famous. I don't think that this was the manner in which to achieve this.

This is the fourth mall shooting this year. And if we look at events like the Virginia Tech massacre and this current Sean Taylor case, it is really scary to look at all the violence in America today. Adding to that is the cases of violence that aren't on a large scale or involve someone famous to put them in the news. It is almost as if we are becoming immune to it, which is very sad to me.

Hot Searches from December 5, 2007:
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6. Nicole Richie -- Quits her anti-drinking course
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8. Von Maur -- Shooting ends the life of shoppers
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12. School closings -- Check to see what is open and what is closed
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18. Miley Cyrus -- A high paid teen according to 'Forbes'
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