The Columbine shooting happened before I was born.  I've lived my entire life with school shootings as a legitimate threat.  In elementary, we had to have a lockdown because there was a person carrying a firearm outside the school.  In middle school, we had to stand outside for an hour in the middle of winter on several days because someone was threatening to blow up our school.  In either my Sophomore or Junior year of high school, there were police units patrolling our campus because of anonymous shooting threats directed at our school.  You know what changed?  We had a few more lockdown drills and had to watched a badly done video about "A.L.I.C.E".

Now, there's this COVID-19 going around, and everyones freaking out, everythings closing, etc. etc.  And I'm not saying it's not a danger because it certainly is.  But, so are mass shootings and climate change and poverty and healthcare and police brutality and suicide and so many other things but there's no mass hysteria over those even though they are all very serious dangers that kill many more people of all ages.  And, it's just so fucking tiring.  People tell me not to be so pessimistic, but sometimes it feels like I'm being realistic than pessimistic.  And, god that is depressing.