There is an old superstition of sorts about how people, famous people, tend to die in threes. I suppose one could attempt to bear this notion out by looking at any give stretch of posts on this blog to see if there exists that sort of grouping based on my celebrity obituaries. This suggests that there is some ghoulish cadre of folks out there scanning the news for additional luminaries to pass away once one goes. And then there's the issue of what happens when that fourth one dies and we all have to wait for two more.
To fulfill the prophecy.
This sort of morbid math runs parallel to the way people like myself track "mass shootings." This past Saturday in Tallahassee, Florida gunfire erupted after a homecoming football game. If this story sounds familiar, that could be because it should. You read about it here less than a month ago as I was decrying the shooting at Dooly High after a homecoming game. This one was at Florida A&M. Nobody died. Twelve people were injured. Six of them were children. We can refer to this as a "mass shooting," but we cannot call it "mass murder." Spraying bullets around a crowded area indiscriminately without any casualties doesn't lessen the impact for those who witnessed it. "Tonight, our thoughts are with the victims and their families as they face the devastating impact of this violence," said Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell. "It is especially heartbreaking to know that children are among those injured."
I have no issue with Chief Revell's assessment. I will also mention that at this point, authorities had made no arrests. They could only say that "an altercation" occurred before the shooting broke out.
Like what happened back in 2025 in Leland, Mississippi.
Or in Baltimore in 2023.
A cynic might suggest that guns don't kill people, Homecoming kills people.
But I'm no cynic. Nor am I a mathematician, but the only way this all adds up for me is that young people shouldn't have to die to watch a football game.
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