By John Q. Hosedrinker 
The Brown University shooting during final exams left students traumatized, including survivors of previous school shootings. For some, the familiar terror reignited past trauma, as both Mia Tretta and Zoe Weissman had previously survived school shootings. Weissman, a survivor of the Parkland shooting, expressed anger and disbelief at experiencing gun violence again. This incident, with its tragic toll, has reignited the debate surrounding gun control in the US, given the frequency of mass shootings.
Read the original article here
Two survivors of Brown University attack escaped other school shootings. The sheer weight of this reality is almost impossible to fully grasp. Two young people, likely still in their teens or early twenties, have endured the unimaginable – not just surviving one school shooting, but somehow finding themselves in the crosshairs of another. One, we’re told, was a survivor of the 2019 Saugus High School shooting. The other had escaped the horror of the 2018 Parkland high school shooting. It’s a stark illustration of the devastating frequency with which these tragedies occur.
I can’t help but feel a profound sense of sadness and outrage. It’s hard to imagine the emotional toll this must take. The constant fear, the hypervigilance, the lingering trauma that must follow them. And what’s truly heartbreaking is that this isn’t an isolated incident. The article mentions other cases, and it’s a terrifying trend. The memory of the Michigan State University shooting, where survivors of the Oxford High School shooting were present, also comes to mind. It’s becoming a grim pattern.
What’s even more heartbreaking is the raw, visceral response of one of the survivors: “How dare this country allow this to happen to someone like me twice?” It’s a question that echoes in my own mind. How, as a society, have we allowed this to become so commonplace that it’s practically predictable? We seem to be failing our children in the most fundamental way, failing to provide a safe and secure environment for them to learn and grow.
It’s almost unfathomable that a student, at the tender age of 20, has already experienced this level of trauma. The fact that parents of college students are increasingly likely to have lived through a school shooting themselves is a chilling indicator of how normalized this violence has become. There’s a deep-seated sickness at the heart of our culture. It’s a tragedy that South Park, in their satirical way, managed to nail the ongoing school shooting reality.
The sheer frequency is what shocks me the most. It’s become so routine, so expected, that the news cycle barely acknowledges it before moving on to the next headline. It makes you question whether it’s safe to raise children in this environment. The idea that a school lockdown could be triggered by something as benign as bears on the playground, as opposed to an active shooter, is a sharp contrast that really hits home. It underscores just how profoundly “fucked up” the situation has become.
The mental health aspect is another aspect of this. Knowing someone who survived a mass shooting, and seeing the lasting impact it had on them, is a powerful reminder of the deep scars left behind. Skipping shooter drills and the reluctance to discuss the experience reveals the depth of the trauma. And then, there’s the reality that the victims are inevitably connected through a network.
The feeling of shock is being replaced with a feeling of inevitability. The thought that the child of a school shooting survivor might also be involved in a school shooting is not an outside possibility anymore. It’s almost certain. The American dream has morphed into generational trauma. It’s as though we are on a fast track to a future where individuals have survived elementary, middle, high school, and college shootings.
It’s difficult to come to terms with the fact that these situations keep happening. The Onion’s long-standing headline, “‘No Way to Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens,” speaks volumes. And yet, the proposed solutions often feel inadequate, if not outright offensive. More guns is the common refrain, and it just doesn’t make sense. How can anyone be expected to go through this once, let alone twice? The emotional toll must be almost unbearable.
The political discourse surrounding these events is often infuriating. The way some people use these tragedies to argue against gun control is particularly callous. The reality is that we’ve had a Federal Assault Weapons Ban in the past, a period when these events didn’t happen every other day. The irony is, of course, that those against gun control also have a solution: to put more guns in the hands of people, who are not the police and not trained.
It’s tempting to view these individuals as magnets for violence. Are they doomed? Should they avoid public spaces? Of course not. They are average people living in a country where violence is disturbingly common. A country where access to guns is unrestricted, where mental health care is lacking, and where graphic violence is normalized.
The comments made by public figures during this time also stand out. It feels as if they are desensitized to these situations. And that the issue will only get the attention it requires when it impacts the elites. It’s a grim prospect, but it feels like the current system won’t change until those in power are affected. It’s as though we’re trapped in a cycle of suffering, with the same arguments playing out again and again.
The NRA and the gun manufacturers, are guilty of conspiracy to murder in my eyes. The lack of accountability is appalling. Whether Democrats or Republicans are in power doesn’t seem to matter. Nothing will change. The situation is so dire that conspiracy theories thrive. And the reality is that these events are becoming so commonplace that it’s highly probable someone involved in a mass shooting will have experienced one before.
The level of trauma is unimaginable. To survive multiple school shootings is a level of suffering that no one should ever have to endure. It’s not just the physical danger, but the psychological impact, the constant fear, the lingering scars. It’s a cycle of trauma that needs to stop.