People fear what they have no control over. They don't fear lightening, because they (correctly or not) think they can avoid it by staying inside during a storm. The things that kill most people, heart desease, lung cancer, car accidents, are all things that we understand the risk factors for fairly well, and have at least an impression that we personally can avoid if we control those factors. Most people killed by guns are either involved in a crime themselves, or know the shooter personally. So we think we can avoid getting shot by staying on the straight and narrow, and not hanging around weird uncle fred. Snipers, anthrax, random hooligans (why do we always have to bring the race thing into it.
), are all things that strike randomly. Of course rationally they should not be feared because the odds are so slim they will happen to us. But because there is nothing we can do to change those odds, we feel powerless, and afraid.
Geoschmo