Unnecessary
Yesterday, my daughter was in Dallas for the NCA Cheer Competition. My wife sent me a text letting me know her team won! Yay! My daughter is a national champion at age 9. Ten minutes later, the next text I get is that there’s an active shooter and they’re in lockdown. Panic consumed the 30,000 people in the convention center. Kids trampled in the stampede to get out. Families and teams separated. Youth running across a 10 lane freeway to escape, traffic screeching to a halt. Horrifying.
The actual cause of the incident was some cheer parents getting into a fight which knocked down some metal poles. The whole situation is sad. Unnecessary trauma because some dumb parents lost their ability to be civil. Unnecessary trauma created through our lax gun laws and inability to stop this uniquely American horror. An unnecessary situation. Thankfully no one was critically injured and the shooter wasn’t real… this time. We’re living inside a lit powder keg at all times and its exhausting.