After West 7th shooting, Fort Worth acted. Two kids killed at car wash? Crickets | Opinion

The fatal shooting of a TCU student in the West 7th district in September was a particularly high-profile crime, and it sparked a sustained reaction. Police leaders talked about all they had done to improve safety in the entertainment district. City leaders vowed to do more, there and in similar areas.

Over the July 4 weekend, two young children, along with a 42-year-old man, were lost in a shooting in southwest Fort Worth, innocent victims of a fight that erupted in gunfire. For some reason, we haven’t heard nearly as much talk about this one — despite the fact that neighbors knew the location, a car wash, was a spot for dangerous gatherings.

Why the discrepancy? There are legitimate reasons, mainly that a shooting in a high-traffic entertainment area will always generate more fear than a domestic squabble that bursts into public. Most of us gratefully don’t see someone we know as capable of such evil, but a seemingly random targeting by an unknown stranger, as apparently happened to Wes Smith in that awful September tragedy, strikes terror in many of us: I could be next.

But if we look at the horror of two shot children and turn our heads, if we simply say that these things, unfortunately, happen, we diminish our city and ourselves. Where is the outrage? Where is the pledge to do more?

Fort Worth needs to confront this type of violence every bit as much as the type feared by well-to-do bar patrons and businesspeople.

There is a regrettable numbness that comes with the scourge of gun violence. We’d be naive to say that the race and socioeconomic status of perpetrators and victims isn’t a factor. But certain crimes break through. The deaths of 1-year-old Wynter Thouston, 4-year-old Ivy Pierce, and 42-year-old Terrell Winn should be one of them.

And yet, in a way, it wasn’t even the most high-profile crime of the weekend. Two people, Tasha Hymond, 39, and Marcus Martin Jr., 26, were killed when someone started shooting at an Independence Day celebration on Castleman Street in southeast Fort Worth — one staffed by city police.

The problem of gun violence seems intractable, but there’s plenty that engaged leaders can do. We know that stolen and illegally obtained weapons are disproportionately used in crimes, and law enforcement at every level must work to target gun trafficking and straw purchases.

We also need a barrage of messages about safe gun ownership, especially from Second Amendment advocates who could balance their talk of gun rights with reminders about responsibilities.

It should go without saying — but apparently it doesn’t — that you should never settle an argument with a gun. Leave your rifle at home if you’re going somewhere seeking confrontation, especially if there are likely to be children present.

Too many men, in particular, feel called to respond to slights with escalation. What starts with words proceeds to fists and gunshots far too easily, especially in the trying summer heat.

Police cannot be everywhere. Chief Neil Noakes and his department have been working to target dangers such as those present in the West 7th and other entertainment districts. But they must be more responsive and engaged with neighborhoods, too. Plenty of southwest Fort Worth residents said they knew that the car wash was a dangerous gathering area. Increasing patrols in such areas is a good idea, and the city must do more at the civil level to target owners of troublesome properties.

After the West 7th killing, we saw immediate talk and action. Nearly a week after the murders of four innocent people — two of them babies — not so much. Fort Worth, that’s not good enough.