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I moved to the Denver area just a few months before Columbine.
I lived a mile and a half away from the Aurora Theater shooting--a friend of mine and I had even talked about going to see that movie that night, but ultimately decided we were too lazy to do so. But that was the theater I usually went to for movies. A friend of mine used to work there as well (he'd taken on another job a few months before the shooting.)
Those two incidents had a massive effect on the area. Earlier this year, a woman came out here, got a gun, and made a credible enough threat about shooting that every school district in the Denver Metro Area shut down.
No, I don't worry about this but only because I don't live in the US. If I did, I would worry. I won't even go on vacation to the US anymore because of all the gun violence that's reported.
After the theater shooting, I was afraid to go to a movie for a long while. That faded eventually. But after this weekend, I am back to feeling a bit scared again. I'm supposed to go to a movie either this week or next and I'm feeling ambivalent about it.
The rational/logical part of my brain tells me that statistically the odds are in my favor that I have nothing to worry about.... but the truth is these events can happen anywhere. I am now going to be paying much more attention to exits and places to run to/hide when I am in public places.
Not really. There’s an inflated sense of ego that Texans are armed, therefore a mass shooter would get Swiss cheesed almost immediately. I’m not so sure that’s the case, but there’s no sense that anyone will do anything differently out of a fear of a mass shooting.
Well, it's pretty demonstrably not the case.
For me, yes, it's something very much in my mind. It Doesnt change how I do things, but it's a very real presence in my mind, and has been for a long time.
I was a 22-year old student teacher in a high school in April of 1999, when the Columbine High School attack happened. I had been mentoring at an alternative school as well, with deeply troubled teens. It hit home.
Years later, I taught at a special needs school, where a staffer began acting erratically, and over the course of being spoken to regarding his conduct, began to act in a threatening, unstable manner toward his supervisor and was terminated and escorted out. I was in the building alone late, which was typical, shortly after, and he had returned and was circling the parking lot. He was not to be on the grounds, so I called the police, but he left before they arrived. Because of vague threats he had made, I was terrified of him showing up armed.
I taught pre-K at a Navy base in 2014, and our center and the whole base went on lockdown for hours for a civilian active shooter situation in an area adjacent to the base. I looked around and realized that there was literally nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide with 25 three- and four-year olds.
I now have a 2-year old and 3-year old. We don't change our lives, and do many things as a family. Among those things are the many family-friendly street fairs and neighborhood festivals in our area. This past Friday night, at one of these, someone opened fire, and a bullet intended for someone else caught a young woman standing in line at a food truck in the head, killing her.
When I go places with my kids, especially crowded places, I automatically scan the area for quickest escape routes, where we would run to if we had to, and what type of cover is available. My heart sinks in my chest when I realize that, even if I needed to, there is no way I could keep a two-year old and three-year old silent in a hiding spot, and I think about the most efficient way to cover two small bodies with my own in a way that would have the best outcomes.
This is my reality.
Am I a shut-in? No. Do I not do things I'd otherwise do with my family? No. Do we avoid public places? No.
But is this always occupying space in my head? Yes. Absolutely.
Since I retired five years ago, I rarely ever carry a firearm. I was taught to have situational awareness. I always take mental notes of where exits are where ever and when ever I am away from home. The statistics show that you will be killed by a law enforcement officer before a being a mass shooting victim.
I don't let anyone or anything dictate how I am going to live my life.
No. The potential threats I worry about are "natural"; earthquakes, blizzards, ice storms, tsunamis, etc. Some situational awareness is a good idea for those too.
My neighbor told me she is afraid to go to the mall. We live in CT where Sandy Hook took place and she spoke with people who had seen it. Ever since then she's been afraid.
It never occurred to me to be afraid to be in a public place. But it is starting to be the new normal. When it happened at Sandy Hook, it was due to mental illness. That's something that needs to be addressed. Many of these shootings are done with guns that are legal but the person is mentally ill.
I think it could be partly due to violent video games that make this seem exciting and even fun. But if you live in a state with strict guns laws, you are safer than those people who live in places with hardly any laws. I'm not ever going to go to Texas or any other place that has weak laws. Yet there is mental illness everywhere and it's not really being addressed.
Most of the recent shootings have been motivated by racism or political differences and amounts to domestic terrorism. That needs to be addressed instead of dismissing it all as generic "mental illness."
Yep no kidding; those are my #3, #2, and #1 fears, respectively. Shootings... not so much, despite living in a pretty densely-populated "high-risk" area. Despite the violent imagery they portray, they're just too statistically unlikely (kind of like airplane crashes).
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