It seems as if school shootings have become a scary trend over the past few years. From Columbine to the Virginia Tech massacre to the recent shooting at Cape Fear High School in Fayetteville, N.C., these horrific shootings are happening all too often, and it’s making people paranoid. Even at UNCW, a school where, news-wise, there isn’t much excitement, we have been experiencing our own paranoia.

On Nov. 15, an armed robbery took place at the Hardee’s on S. College Road. The gunman fled towards campus after robbing one person at gunpoint in the Hardee’s parking lot. No one ever reported seeing the gunman on campus, but this didn’t stop people from panicking. Word spread fast that there was a gunman on campus, and people took shelter immediately. The gunman was never found, and he left our campus with a feeling of uneasiness.

The next morning, Nov. 16, East Carolina University’s campus was put on lockdown after a man was spotted with what appeared to be a gun sticking out of his backpack. The campus went into a frenzy, as could be expected. The “gun” turned out to be a large umbrella. It seems that UNCW’s gunman had ECU on edge.

Recently, the night of Dec. 3, two people reported a man walking towards campus with a rifle in the Carleton Place neighborhood next to campus. The man was reported to be around 6 feet tall and wearing baggy pants. The report forgot to mention that his baggy pants were camouflage, as he had just returned from a hunting trip and was walking from his parked car on the main street in Carleton Place to his home, gun in tow. Again, UNCW’s campus went crazy with alerts, Facebook statuses, Twitter updates, etc. about the “gunman” on the loose when in actuality the only creatures this man was trying to shoot were deer.

While I understand that it’s better to be safe than sorry, if there ever is a real gunman on campus, it’s possible that people won’t take it seriously because of all of the “boy who cried wolf” scenarios that have been occurring recently. Upon hearing the news of the “rifleman” in Carleton Place, many people who live in the neighborhood said, “I’m sure it’s nothing. Another ECU scenario, probably.” Even though it did turn out to be nothing, it’s not impossible to have a gunman on campus, as we have seen recently. Hopefully people will continue to be cautious but also refrain from blowing things out of proportion.