Suddenly, It’s Realityland

Where on Earth could a little girl be safe if not in Fantasyland? The random shooting of an 8-year-old girl who was riding the Disneyland Railroad last Sunday was a horrifying commentary on the hazards of guns in our neighborhoods. No place is safe, not even a park that prides itself on being one of the happiest places people can spend their leisure hours. This shooting says, “Just outside the gate lies the world of reality--and that world has the capacity to invade even the street of dreams.”

One maddening thing among many in this tale is that investigators had little more than the angle of the bullet’s trajectory to point them toward the origin of the shot. Anaheim police say the shot could have traveled as far as a mile in the air before crashing through the red and white canvas roof of the train and hitting Nayeli Diana Placentia. Residents and police say there’s nothing out of the ordinary for guns to be fired in the general neighborhood outside the park where the shot may have come from.

So where does that leave us? It might be comforting to urge park officials and local officials to renew efforts to keep the park and its environs safe. In fact, park officials moved quickly to get the girl medical help and reportedly are offering to assist in paying her medical bills. Fortunately, she was reported in good condition by the next day, but another time, another random victim might not be so lucky.

Disney has been able to create all sorts of worlds over the years. The sorry truth of our times is that it may be too much even for a legendary dream machine to construct one that is absolutely, positively safe at all times. There certainly isn’t much defense from a missile fired from afar into the park.

There are no guaranteed safeties at any time in our lives, but the odds of random violence necessarily increase when so many guns are out and about in our neighborhoods. The security net that needs to be thrown is larger than Anaheim or any single community or theme park can be expected to throw. To cut down the risk of such horrible incidents, we need stricter gun control to keep our streets--and the dream worlds that give hope to our lives--safer for 8-year-olds.