Welcome to what will go down in history as another episode of this podcast. My 175th attempt at

relevance. I'm the operator sitting here in my lonesome six foot by nine foot box that is

soundproofed in the same fashion as a diaper. Thanks for joining me.

Let's get into this sock full of soup, shall we?

Sometimes reality is a bit more horrific than other realities.

For example, I grew up in a time when playing cops and robbers was an intense recreation of actual reality.

If you go back a couple more generations, you can find dirty-faced kids who would periodically pull their heads out of a news rag to pick up a stick.

And in their best Bonnie or Clyde voice, they'd hold up their friends and maybe feign a stick shot to a fake

bank teller as they stole all of the fake money that they'd ever need. But it wasn't always just

kids that romanticized the raucous robberies of the past. Books and TV produced hours of glorified terrible crime entertainment for the common folk.

What maybe should have been perceived as worry over real-life crimes was converted through the media to whimsy.

But converting terrible crimes into whimsical tales is not always possible.

Today, gunslingers in buildings aren't wearing petticoats and fedoras. No. They're called active

shooters, and nobody romanticizes what they do.

It's horrible.

It's dark.

Their acts are often fueled by mental instability and unmitigated rage.

The crimes are devoid of drama and imbued with the devil, dark and deadly.

Recounting an active shooter situation isn't ever intended to be

entertainment, but more to tell a story, and that's what I'll try to do today. Tell the story of one

horrible day back in 2023. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I know you're all wondering, the operator, where does this

story take place? And what are some weird facts about that town? Okay, fine. Cuddle up next to your

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