Nowhere is safe anymore: Fears intensify as mass shootings occur across U.S.

Freshman Thea Fernandes was in Dallas, Texas, for a national fencing competition in the summer of 2016. After finishing her event and staying at the convention center where the competition was taking place to watch some of the other matches, Fernandes was walking a short distance from the convention center to her hotel. As she entered her hotel room, a Breaking News alert appeared on the TV. 

To her shock, a mass shooting had taken place outside the convention center minutes after Fernandes walked past it.

“It was right outside where I was walking,” Fernandes said. “The craziest part of that whole thing was I realized that there were still people in that building, like my friends.”

Fernandes and all her friends made it out safely from the convention center, and were unharmed by the shooting, but it was an alarming reminder that almost no one is safe from the threat of gun violence in the U.S., which, according to the 

Small Arms Survey, has about 120 guns per 100 citizens.

Mass shootings are now daily and sometimes twice-daily events. According to Gun Violence Archives, there have been close to 300 mass shootings since Jan 1. This averages out to about 1.2 shootings per day in the U.S. 

The Gun Violence Archives defines a mass shooting as a shooting in which at least four people were injured or killed. This number does not include the shooter if they are killed in the incident.

In August alone, there were three headline-grabbing mass shootings. In El Paso, Texas, a gunman opened fire at a shopping center, killing 22 and injuring over two dozen. In Dayton, Ohio, nine people were shot and killed by a gunman wearing body armor at a popular nightlife area. Days later, another seven people were killed by a shooter in Texas in the area between Midland and Odessa.

Another reason some might not feel as disturbed by shootings is that the frequency of mass shootings in the U.S. desensitizes people to their true gruesomeness. 

“People watching the news aren’t as affected as they were when shootings weren’t so common,”  sophomore Kaaya Minocha said in a message to The Falcon. “That’s the problem: People have started to believe that shootings are normal.” Minocha is an active member of the group March for Our Lives, a group that formed following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

A group of students who survived the shooting in Parkland started March For Our Lives, organizing the first march and inspiring sister marches to take place all over the country.

On July 28, on the third and last day of the Gilroy Garlic Festival, a shooter opened fire on the crowd, killing three and injuring around 21 people.

Serenity Caas, a junior at San Benito High School, was at the festival when the shooting occurred. She and some friends had been working in Gourmet Alley, the part of the festival where food was sold, but decided to roam around the park instead. They had just made it to the parking lot when they heard the shots. 

“We didn’t know what the sounds were until we saw people running to their cars,” Caas told The Falcon. “We ran to Gilroy High School.”

By then, law enforcement had shown up and began putting on bullet-proof vests. This tipped Caas and her friends off that a shooting was happening, and they sprinted almost three blocks, trying to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the festival. 

Gilroy — only 37 miles away — is significantly closer to Saratoga than many of the other recent shootings. It’s the sort of event hundreds of Bay Area families go to almost each year.

“It was really scary to see a festival that I used to go to every year be the site of a major shooting,” SHS senior Lauren Hansen said. “It really put some things into perspective, knowing that no area or place is safe from someone with a gun and a plan.”

For survivors of shootings, reminders and anniversaries of the event may provoke grief and a sense of futility to stop future shootings.

One father, Jeremy Richman, whose daughter was killed in the Sandy Hook shooting in Connecticut on Dec. 12, 2012, attempted to ensure other families did not experience the same loss. Though he channeled his grief into researching brain abnormalities that could lead to violent behavior at the Avielle foundation, Richman may not have been able to deal with his own pain anymore. In March, he took his own life.

In addition to grief, mass shootings can instill a certain fear within those affected.

Kaylan Wells, a senior at San Benito High School who was also at the Gilroy Garlic Festival, found the experience to be very traumatizing.

“Ever since the shooting happened, I’ve almost become paranoid,” Wells said. “Whenever I enter a building, I scope it out. I find all the exits, fire extinguishers and places to hide. It’s a habit now.”

Fernandes, the fencer, said she went to the Great Mall a few weeks ago with her family and heard two pops from burglars smashing glass. At first she did not think it was a shooting, but then she saw people around her looking nervous and beginning to evacuate out of fear of another shooting. She said that moment reminded her of her experience in Dallas.

“Everything for me in Dallas kind of came back,” Fernandes said. “Maybe I am going to be the one who gets shot, maybe something’s going to happen to my dad or my mom, or maybe something’s going to happen to that little kid in front of me. I didn’t know what was going to happen next.”

The growing normalcy of mass shootings in the U.S. has created a sense of fear for its citizens. The risk of being in another mass shooting can overshadow everything else, including ordinary life. 

Caas said her mother won’t allow her to volunteer at the Gilroy Garlic Festival anymore. “My friends and I would always go together, so it’s heartbreaking to know that some of our privileges are getting taken away from us because of fear,” she said.

Others are reacting to the shootings with stronger calls for reform. The Never Again movement created by students in Parkland, for instance, was inspired by the deadly shooting at their high school.

There is often a spike in anti-gun activism in areas close to mass shootings. The activism also has a correlation to the recency and magnitude of the shooting.

But Minocha said even communities with a reputation for extreme safety such as Saratoga can learn lessons and fight the battle against gun violence.

“I honestly don’t know if a school shooting is imminent for Saratoga,” Minocha said. “I believe that raising awareness is the most helpful thing we can do right now. Many people don’t believe that guns are a problem, but they are.”