There's a reason why they believe this.
They've been on this planet longer than you. You may see school shootings as an inevitable or unavoidable part of life and may be incapable of imagining a better world, but they don't have to imagine that better world because they lived in that better world.
Here's something else to think about. How do you define heroism?
Lots of people define heroism as putting your life in danger to save someone else. There are people who define heroism as pushing yourself outside your comfort zone. There are people who define heroism as trying what nobody else has tried before or exploring areas nobody else has explored before. But far too many people define heroism as "standing up for yourself and not taking other people's abuse/mistreatment/unfairness". This is a dangerous definition for several reasons:
1. The words "abuse", "mistreatment" and "unfairness" are very abstract and arbitrary. Lots of people see unfairness where there isn't any.
2. The concrete actions involved in "standing up for yourself" can range from complaining at best to murder/terrorism at worst. Many people who stand up for themselves do so by getting revenge, which makes them worse than the people they were standing up to.
3. If "standing up for yourself" involves revenge, innocent bystanders can be injured or killed as a result.
