It didn't hit me at first.

Not to be disrespectful, but I didn't know any of the victims, although I know someone who knows someone who did. I suppose most of us who live here can say the same thing.

Five years ago last Thursday, I was returning home from running errands and I turned on the TV. To my shock, every channel was reporting a shooting on the campus of Northern Illinois University. Six people were killed, including the gunman, and 21 more were wounded. It was, at the time, the fifth-deadliest university shooting in U.S. history.