I've never posted on the politics board before but felt it was worth doing so today. I live in Highland Park and have attended the parade for 20 years or so. By dumb luck, I was sitting a block away from the shooter and was not in the line of fire. My kids thankfully are teen and college age and were "too cool" to attend the parade.
While my first instinct was to think that this can't be real, the very sad thought that then quickly went through my mind was that of course this can be real, this can happen anywhere. Like everyone else around us, we ran and were able to get away from the parade route quickly.
This isn't a large town. They've only announced two of the dead and one was someone we knew in the community. I fully expect that as more names get out, we'll know many of the victims.
I'm not looking for attention or sympathy. I just want to share how utterly terrifying the rapid fire nature of the gun shots was to hear, and the devastation that our community is experiencing in the aftermath. And I want to add my voice to the chorus of those that correctly point out that no other western nation lives like this. It's a political choice that has been forced upon us by the radical voices that control the Republican party and the extremist Supreme Court that enables the on demand weapons of war culture that is so prevalent.
Every society has mental illness, alienated youth, and violent video games. Only our nation provides easy access to weapons of war.