I agree with the article's point that "we" are naive. Even in domestic incidents like the school shootings, the society as a whole does this eyes-glazed-over denial routine where "things like this don't happen" or "aren't supposed to happen". The consequence is total lack of effective action, because preparing for the fact that these things obviously DO happen would require acknowledging and coming to grips with that FACT that people do go out and deliberately kill people who don't deserve it. It might also require people to consider the issues of guilt and blame. As long as these are 'isolated incidents' and due to 'mental illness' then we don't have to face the reality that some people are evil and are motivated to kill other, innocent people.
The Sandy Hook massacre illustrated this perfectly. Immediately after the shooting, it was reported that Sandy Hook Elementary school had
just this [school] year installed a new security system that was "designed to prevent this type of incident." That system, of course, was the locked front entrance door and the buzzer. And, to prove the naivete theorem, it clearly never occurred to anyone in Newtown that an evil-doer might not just walk away if not buzzed in, but might actually just shoot of the glass doors or sidelights and reach through the opening to unlatch the door.
To compound the idiocy, AFTER Sandy Hook I have read articles citing multiple school distracts that are praising themselves for deciding to install
the same type of system that failed so spectacularly at Sandy Hook.
There's a young man who shoots fairly regularly at the range where I shoot. He happens to work as a locksmith. We have discussed school security in the wake of sandy Hook. His work takes him to schools all over the county. He reports that getting into any school is just not a problem. Either a teacher leaves a door propped open to sneak outside for a smoke, or the back door to the kitchen or the shop area is left unsecured, or -- he just knocks on a back door and somebody opens it, no questions asked.
Yeppers, I would say that as a society we are naive. (That sounds much nicer than "stupid.")