I’ve been doing a lot of research into murder statistics across the country and specifically to the state of New Jersey, and it is quite depressing. There were nearly 14,000 murders across the county in 2009, the FBI said, which is just a staggering number of people.

Of that, only 15 percent were over the age of 50 and nearly two-thirds were committed with a firearm.

It’s very sobering to read these numbers and see these statistics. I don’t think this was as emotional a night of writing as it was when I had to write specifically about my grandpa’s death, but just an awful reminder of what is going on in our world today, around us always, as we continue with our lives ignorant as can be.