Senseless

In a neighborhood not much different than mine, just a few miles away, 7 people died this weekend. For reasons we might never know, a man killed 6 strangers at a party before shooting himself.

What upsets me the most is that two of the victims shouldn’t have been there. They should have been at home, safe in their beds. Not sitting on the porch steps, not in the path of gunfire. Up until the day I moved out of my parents’ house, at the age of 22, I wasn’t allowed to stay out all night. I had to fight a hard battle to get my curfew pushed to 1am when I was 19 years old. Even now, my parents give me a hard time when I am out “too late” while visiting them. At 14 and 15, these girls were not even old enough to drive, but were at a rave which ran until 4 am. And then attended an after party where they watched the sun rise. Why?

The gunman is the sole person responsible for their deaths. Not them. Not their parents. But I can’t help but wonder what would have happened had their parents had a little more control over their children? Used a little better judgment? Put their foot down a little earlier?

People still would have died. And these people still wouldn’t have deserved to die. But these two girls, who barely started living, didn’t need to be there, didn’t need to be victims.