Prepping for the American southwest

For God's sakes, don't do a risk and compliance check

Regional definitions vary but Arizona and New Mexico (in dark red) are almost always considered the core of the American Southwest. The brighter red states – California, Colorado, Nevada, and Utah – are classified as part of the West by the US Census Bureau. The striped states – Oklahoma and Texas – are classified as the South. Map: Secret Saturdays/ public domain

Reader, I’m off to the American southwest and before I leave, I’ve been doing my due diligence.

Not really. I use the words “due diligence” half in jest because I didn’t really audit and verify facts and information and nor did I conduct a proper risk and compliance check.

To do so might have been overly troubling.

In Texas (though the state is not strictly considered part of the southwest, just the American south), there was this year’s second-deadliest mass shooting in the US just days ago. A gunman opened fire at a crowded mall north of Dallas on May 6. It came within a week of a man in Houston killing five people after his n…