DC Snipers – First Anniversary of First Shooting

It’s hard to believe that the sniper attacks were only a year ago. At times it seems like a different lifetime.

As much as I hate to admit it, the attacks did change the way I behaved and thought while the perpetrators were still at large. I knew perfectly well that the chance of being shot by the sniper were slim. There were other murders in the region, numbering more than the number of sniper victims. There were fatal car accidents on the beltway. I was more likely to die in some freak accident. And yet, I was afraid to gas up my car. I was afraid to walk through a parking lot into a store. I found myself changing where I got gas — I chose a station that had fewer hidden access points were a sniper could hide. I was tempted to find one of the stations where the guardian angels were pumping gas for people who were too afraid to pump their own. In the end, I didn’t let the sniper attacks keep me from activities I wanted to do; though, I will grudgingly admit that fear pervaded much of the activities that required me to be outside the comfort of either my house or my car.