When I walk into a place, I tend to scan the room looking for exits in the case of an emergency. This isn't paranoia, it's just an understanding that stuff happens. It could be anything from a fire to some idiot losing control of his car and turning my favorite barbecue place into a drive-through. Knowing how to get out in a hurry is just prudent.

But a lot of people are genuinely fearful of things like mass shootings. They're terrified of them. To be fair, nothing about them sounds the least bit amusing, so I get it.

The issue is that it seems that more than a third of all Americans are avoiding public spaces because of them.

A new survey revealed that 36% of Americans admitted to avoiding public places or events due to fear of a mass shooting.

The report, published by ProTraining, surveyed 1,000 Americans across a broad range of demographics to assess public perceptions and attitudes toward gun violence in the United States. 

The analysis also showed that younger generations and women were more likely to report avoiding such spaces, highlighting varying levels of concern across different demographic groups.

"This highlights a deeply concerning trend: the fear of tragedy not only impacts our emotional well-being, but it also actively alters our behavior and limits our engagement with the world around us," the company, which provides CPR and first-aid certification courses, said.

Something the news report failed to mention, shockingly, is that the survey linked in the quoted section above noted that 71% of respondents noted that news coverage of violence has increased their concerns about violence.

And that's interesting because that's probably why so many people are avoiding public places and events.

See, think about the news reports you've seen on mass shootings and gun violence for a moment. There's always a bit about how there have been hundreds of "mass shootings" this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. They do nothing to differentiate what those supposed shootings actually are, though, so people make assumptions instead.

In the average American's mind, a mass shooting is something like Uvalde or Las Vegas. It's someone walking into a place and starting to gun down people in order to kill as many people as possible.

But most of those shootings the GVA tracks aren't anything of the sort.

Instead, they're related to gangs or other criminal activity. They're someone trying to settle a score, finding their target at a gathering, then opening fire without the least bit of ability to hit a target. As a result, a lot of innocent people get hurt.

Now, this isn't new. I came of age in the '90s when drive-by shootings were the big scourge being reported in the media. These not just killed or injured the target, at least in some cases, but injured or killed innocent bystanders, often in staggering numbers. At the time, though, we understood the problem. We knew that these didn't happen at malls or other events, as a general thing, so we didn't live our lives in fear of them. They were generally confined to gang territory and most of us stayed clear of those.

It was still a problem, but we understood the problem.

Now, though, the media reports these shootings as "mass shootings" and it distorts the understanding. As a result, people are terrified of anywhere that something might just happen. They can't comprehend just how rare actual mass shootings really are.

So, they cower in their homes, allowing the fear to keep them from enjoying life, often while decrying the very right to keep and bear arms that might just help them move past their fears.

Some people clearly need to cowboy up and live their lives. The media needs to knock off the scare tactics.

The rest of us need to just keep living our lives and be ready in case the worst happens, but otherwise not let it dictate who we are or what we do.