Worst thing about sick Chiefs Super Bowl parade shooting is how unsurprising it is | Opinion

The worst thing about this stomach-turning mass shooting on what had been such a proud and jubilant occasion is just how unsurprising it was.

Two people were shot at last year’s parade for the Denver Nuggets after their NBA championship.

Seven were shot and killed at a July Fourth parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park in 2022.

An advocate for victims of domestic violence was shot and killed at a First Friday in downtown Kansas City in 2019.

Six years ago on the same date as our parade, Feb. 14, 17 people died and 17 more were injured in the Parkland high school shooting.

But then, every day of the year is an anniversary of an American slaughter.

For years, such tragedies have regularly occurred in malls, schools and churches. Just days ago, there was a shooting at Joel Osteen’s megachurch in Houston. People have died needlessly at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, and at a music festival in Las Vegas.

Fans at this year’s Super Bowl parade should have been able to expect a safe environment, Police Chief Stacey Graves said at a news conference. And sure they should have, but with the country awash in guns and only the most theoretical limits on them in Missouri, they cannot reasonably expect any such thing.

Mayor Quinton Lucas, who was at the parade with his wife and mother, and also had to run for cover, said, “We never would have thought … we’d be forced to run for our safety.”

Only, we do have to think about that these days, and that’s unacceptable.

Every time you’re in a crowd anywhere now, no matter how happy the occasion, isn’t part of you on high alert, scanning for signs of trouble? I am.

For the umpteenth time, no end of good guys with guns can be expected to head off yet another tragedy. No number of them would be enough to stop the carnage, yet we keep pretending otherwise.

Every time something like this happens, we’re told that it’s too soon to talk about why this keeps happening. Actually, it’s too late, but a serious, please-let’s-get-real about gun control conversation is more urgent now than ever.