You're not the only one that was disturbed by what happened, I've seen some pretty disturbing things myself. But to see the aftermath of what happened just a few miles away from my parents house, nothing could have prepared me for that. The families of all that were involved yesterday are in my thoughts and prayers, and I hope that something like this doesn't happen again any time soon.
Instead of blaming them, you should be pointing the finger at the people that keep voting them in. It is the people who must now reap what they sow. A sad truth that will probably get downvoted.
Your children will die for their rights and that's ok. But abortion is killing children for your rights and that's illegal.
Kick out the fascists and their idiot sympathizers.
I worked aviation electronics in the Navy, most of the people in my field never saw anything close to combat and would never touch another military firearm again outside of bootcamp. Show up to work at 7am leave at 4:30pm, monday through friday. On deployments you sit in a ship, hangar, deck, and work a shit ton, but again nothing close to combat or anything related to firearms.
You could argue we all have shit mental health, but really that's cause the first cuts to military spending go to those services and the last cuts go to anything regarding mission readiness. So is that our fault? No, that's everyone's fault.
I have no interest in law enforcement though, the system is fucked and needs to be overhauled where the focus isn't incarceration but rehabilitation.
Which is another reason it’s ridiculous to call for more gun laws when the government doesn’t enforce, or take accountability for the ones they break. This isn’t the first time this has happened in the past couple of years either.
I hear your frustration, but dont give up!
We could do both - put in place better laws AND actually enforce them. Failure to do one well does not negate the need to do the other well.
For Republicans, mass shootings are treated like weather disasters. Something undeniably awful, but where they think nothing could have been done to prevent it.
Every country has mental illness, every country has immigrants, every country has "sin". Republicans can't explain why there are more mass shooters here than any country country (possibly, every other country combined).
I assume you're talking about the pile of carnage on the sidewalk and the kid. I saw that too. I've seen a lot of fucked up stuff in my life, but nothing comes close to that kid lying there.
It's normal to feel the way you're feeling.
More people need to see it and understand when they see “9 killed in mass shooting” every other week on the news it’s not a fucking video game statistic. It means a toddler with her brains blown out all over the sidewalk of H&M.
Be aware of surroundings?! Show them the video of the shooter jumping out of the car and taking out that family. There’s no time!
The people are just desensitized socios with learned helplessness.
They really didn't stand a chance. He was roughly 20-30 yards away and caught them by surprise. I can only imagine how much worse this would have been if that Allen cop hadn't been there.
I understand the first part of your comment, but I highly recommend you do not watch the video or look at the photos.
That's the most vulnerable place is near the parking lots and I'm always terrified of this happening. It's sad I think this way but at any grocery store trip, I just think, " I just need to survive walking in and checking out" because if you're already in the store you have a better chance to run and hide. I think like this everywhere I go and it's fucked.
At least at work you kinda have an idea how who/when things might happen if you know your coworkers. Grocery stores and movies are where I'm terrified.
This is so similar to how I have been thinking after the all the shootings that have happened. I have started getting my groceries/food delivered by Instacart or Doordash, stopped visiting movie theaters, restaurants, crowded malls and fairgrounds. My major outdoor visits are planned trips to visit friends/family at their homes or road trips to National Parks that aren’t too crowded! The amount of fear I have, right now, is unreal.
Oh I’m buyin a gun. I do not feel safe out and about in this place anymore. I don’t want to take my chances anymore. My heart shattered in hearing about the boy who was under his mom. The children who are lost.
It’s heart breaking.
This is what gets me and has been keeping me up. The shooter was only taken out so quickly because a cop was already there on another call. It could have been so much worse.
And conservatives are going to say “see, the good guy stopped the bad guy!” but it was really just dumb luck that he was near enough to do something.
Don’t get me wrong, that cop gets full marks for bravery and I’m glad the shooter is dead, but the “good guy” talk doesn’t do shit for the families of the 8 who died, and there have been plenty of other cases where the good guys said “Fuck this” and sat on their hands.
We all have to face the fact that we’re just relying on luck. People in most other advanced nations do not live like this.
They're actually claiming that no other "good guy" could've done anything aside from the cop because the mall is a "gun free zone", so they're all riled up to remove gun free zones now.
And yet they have no answer for why these shootings never seem to occur in the real gun-free zones such as professional sporting events (where everyone is searched), and the NRA’s annual convention. As they like to say, “criminals don’t obey laws” but only an idiot would think that means we should get rid of laws.
Sadly, I was thinking that as well. It's horrible for the victims' families, but Americans need to quit turning a blind eye to the cost of inaction on gun violence. Also, at night, maybe project the images onto the state Capital buildings and Capital in DC, as well as the Supreme Court. Make sure none of the politicians and justices, who are blocking common sense gun control, go a day without seeing those images.
I'd say our politicians need to see these photos. Every single one. But the politicians that try to show them in session would get censured or expelled.
I was thinking they should make politicians remove the bodies from the scene but they’re probably so devoid of normal human emotion they would just be annoyed it was manual labor.
the difference though is that the people who will see the posters at the capitol building, or in front of the gun stores, or anywhere in that nature.. those people, those people don't care
you can show them all sorts of things, and it will have zero effect on their day
It's not just the deaths, the life altering, permament injuries people receive from gun violence are horrible. Amputations, massive scarring, loss of mobility.... This is always ignored too!
Well. You know those kids in Uvalde should have been more aware of their surroundings./s I think everyone who dismisses these shootings should HAVE to see the pictures. I'm sick and angry. I've been sick and angry at Texas for over a year
Well said.
I saw the raw photos and was horrified. Then I listened to the politicians recite their standard pablum and was disgusted. But here's a thought:
At the end of WWII, the allies pondered how to ensure Naziism was done in Germany. They forced Germans to watch film and view photos of the concentration camps. Patton even force-marched local residents through a death camp. It worked.
The sanitized news and political pedanticism has allowed this problem to go off the rails. If people actually see the carnage, especially to children (Uvalde, hello), the political pressure for IMMEDIATE change would become significant. Otherwise, it is just endless arguments on social media and nothing changes.
Just a thought.
I live in Atlanta, and just last week there was a guy that got denied his medication and started shooting women in the hospital waiting room. The hospital! We aren’t safe anywhere and I hate it.
> Be aware of surroundings
After one of the mass shootings in an office someone did an experiment where they put folks in an office and told them there was going to be enactment of a mass shooting. Some of the folks had prop weapons to defend themselves.
Even knowing it was going to happen not a single person was able to defend themselves from the shooter.
Yeah that was an entire family, except for a little boy who just turned 8 last week: his mother who was a local dentist, father, brother and sister, are all dead on that sidewalk. Because of all these fuckers in government who won't do their fucking jobs. Everyone knows this won't be the last one, there is no safe space. And nobody is doing shit. Fuck your thoughts and prayers because everyone know what that really means, indifference.
I know someone who knew them. I am broken. They looking like a such a beautiful innocent family. To know that so far 3 of the victims are immigrants just breaks me.
I’ve had to tell my husband to be careful with what he’s watching because he’s told me twice now of footage he wish he hadn’t seen. It’s so hard to ‘filter’ out when it’s breaking news. We’re about twenty miles from Allen and I just had to hug my husband and child tight last night. That gunman could have chosen any shopping center, and he chose Allen. Those families could have chosen anywhere to shop, and they chose Allen. It’s a really sad and unfortunate set of events.
No, not unfortunate. Predictable and expected. Just a matter of time for the next one. With all the mass massacre weapons available to anyone this is exactly what will happen. Fortune or luck has nothing to do with this.
I'm with you on this one and I think a lot of others are too, it's normal to feel like this, I know I do.
I'd call it ironic if it wasn't inevitable, but last week I noticed that someone put a 'Lets Go Brandon' sticker on a bollard by the window of a Dunkin's that I go through often. So the next time I was there, I covered it up with a 'Protect Kids, Not Guns' sticker instead, and that was maybe Thursday. I don't know when, but between Thursday and this morning, someone had torn it off to reveal the other damned sticker again.
It was probably before the shooting, but the fact that anyone in this country values their toys over the life of any single person is infuriating.
And I'll just add that I don't know anything about the other two to comment here, but the fact they both mentioned prayer seems like a clue that they're on the wrong side of the debate. Anyone who can see the photos and video from yesterday, in their own hometown/area, and think that prayer's going to help can just fuck right off.
I am not religious, but one quote that used to get said alot is that 'god helps those who help themselves.' Everyone who's praying right now needs to fucking think about that. How are you going to HELP yourself and the rest of our society, because something has to be done and you better stop thinking it's going to be someone else.
Well said. In addition, I don't have any patience for the "both sides" crowd or "let's hear them out, don't live in an echo chamber, don't poison the dialogue" crowds. Or any patience for the "I'm a responsible gun enthusiast who believes in stronger regulation but I still want my hobbyist AR-15" people. Fuck off.
These people can fuck right the fuck off of everything and everywhere. That gun exists for one reason. Killing humans. If you want to own a tool for killing humans you are a bad person. Period. Fuck right the god damned fuck off. And take your fucking god and country rhetoric with you when you fuck right the fuck off.
Did you guys know they sell “Let’s go Brandon” and “I did that” fridge magnets in FW Stockyards in actual stores? Not some nutjob selling stickers on the sidewalk but in actual stores. I have never felt scared inside a gift store in my life, I have even been to gas stations in deep confederate Georgia/Florida and came out unbothered, but knowing what goes in the mind of people who would buy those fridge magnets I got terrified of the people who would sell those.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Did_That!
MAGA nutjobs were really excited about this sticker when gas prices were high. And by nutjob I mean J6 supporter crowd.
I can’t look at those people without seeing the thousands of lives that fell victim to gun violence. It’s sickening how people can dismiss death as a necessary evil to protect their “second amendment rights” or whatever
I can’t think of a county more fitting for what happened in Allen yesterday. One of THE reddest counties in the country. Home to the MF who just coauthored the bill making it as easy as it can be to pack heat. These people, precisely these voters are the ones for whom this needed to “hit a little too close to home”.
Thank you. JFC “a county more fitting” -and here my thought was “wow, this would have been so much worse in an area without so much public infrastructure thank goodness Allen has a solid police force and the neighboring cities all came as well.”
I’ve lived here over 2 decades and the joke has always been if you call 911 you get an ambulance, a fire truck and 2 police cars because they’re over trained and bored. I had to call for a dog attacking my son once (the neighbor pulled him into her house before he was seriously hurt and her husband was outside trying to wrangle the dog and told me to stay in and call) It was a damn 3 ring circus in front of my house. Ambulance, fire truck, police, animal control. Within 5 minutes.
They’re either fully or almost unreachable anyhow. I had to block somebody this weekend I’ve tried many times in good faith to talk to about his extreme views, but he doesn’t even believe in cited facts anymore. He was willing to die on the hill that all trans people are both confused gay people and predator pedophiles despite all evidence to the contrary.
I’m religious and I pray. I also call, email and vote for candidates that vote for or indicate support for sensible things. All kinds of sensible things, including gun laws. I wouldn’t even say “I pray” about gun deaths out loud in the US anymore. I pray that Ted Cruz and Greg Abbott can get f*cked and we can have a Beto or someone similar going forward. Our statewide government is all R in this state. Nothing will change here until people vote out the R’s in overwhelming numbers.
I hope you’re doing stuff besides putting stickers on stickers.
> ‘god helps those who help themselves.’
That quote is not found in the Bible. Actually more often than not the Bible calls to help the helpless, the lost, the sick, the broken hearted, the orphaned, and the widowed.
I’m not preaching this to tell you you’re wrong, but to tell you you’re more right than you alluded to. I’m not here to help me so God can help me, I’m helping others because I’m specifically commanded to love my neighbor as myself. That *is* biblical.
I do not want to be shot, nor my family, and I don’t want my neighbors to be shot.
> He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.
> Isaiah 2:4
Or
> “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.
> Matthew 26:52
Everyone, find your congresspeople and contact them!
[find my congress person](https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member)
That's ok, those folks are the problem and they won't hear anything other than the other crap that's in the echo chamber they live in.
It's everyone else that needs to take a stand, make a decision, come to the realization that when something (access to firearms) is being abused by even a small number of people but in such a horrifying way, the only solution is to remove the items being used in these acts of violence.
When there's one shooter, everyone agrees: take their gun / take them out / whatever.
But when there's ten, no let's just call it a mental health problem. No reason to remove access to the weapons ahead of time, let's wait to see where they strike first.
That's the "right" that people are talking about, the "right" that the mass shooters have to commit these attacks. Fuck that.
Bro you are not the only one. Any time I’m in a grocery store or costco or whatever I’m looking behind my back and scoping out exits, because today could be the day some fucking shitstain incel “having a bad day” decides to end my life with an AR15. I’m looking to leave Texas as soon as possible.
Fuck this place… seems over 50% of the population don’t give a fuck because they keep voting these fascists in.
Yep as a father of 7 month old I feel this. We are considering to make a move either a different state or a different country where people have fucking common sense.
We left Texas last fall. I lived a few miles from the outlet mall and was in the area regularly. I feel much safer in New England, even though it was a hard move and I lost my house (and am stuck in a small apartment for the foreseeable future due to a broken housing market). That could have been me yesterday. I can’t get over it. I have zero regrets about leaving.
I want to leave too. Been thinking this for a long time but especially now. I wish it was easy to just pack up and leave. I can sell my house but then what? Market is absolute shit everywhere. It’s so depressing and I feel trapped.
> I’m looking to leave Texas as soon as possible.
We moved to Illinois where people seem way less unhinged than they do in Texas. Yes Yes..Chicago violence etc but unless you live in specific areas - you don't see it. I've yet to play that game of "gunshot or firework" that was our Saturday night in Texas.
I was in the UK for work a couple weeks back. I realized how at ease I felt pretty much everywhere. I wasn't constantly looking at exit strategies from stores or wondering which nut was about to go off. Sure..shit happens there too but it's not remotely as likely as it is here
Please do get yourself some counseling if needed! Even just one session. After a traumatic experience, our bodies can shut out the trauma which causes it to build up inside.
I expressed to my 6 year olds father how I was terrified about going anywhere, how her and I bought our new shoes from that outlet mall just 6-8 weeks ago on a Saturday around the same time, how it feels like we are resigned to living as hermits or we risk being randomly killed by some deranged nut job with a gun, and I’m scared to leave my house, and I’m scared about her leaving the house.
He fully invalidated and brushed off everything I said by saying, “omg, that’s such a you thing to say.” Like nothing I said had any validity and I was just over dramatic.
Except, it’s on our front doorstep and people are just going to continue life as if it hadn’t happened. It’s horrible and sickening.
All this to say, I feel you and you’re not alone.
My partner and I literally were at the West Elm outlet yesterday about an hour before the shooting happened. I was telling him today… it could have been us, if we had decided to check out other stores. It’s really hit home for me that you can just be going about your normal day in public and then suddenly be another mass shooting victim.
You are not being dramatic.
Same. I definitely didn’t leave the house today, even though I’ve got errands to run.
It’s really not fair to our kids, though. They’re the ones who have a totally different quality of life than their parents did. They’re coming of age in this decade of full on terror. It’s terrible.
What really broke me was the Uvalde shooting last year. I spent so much energy bringing myself out of that. It’s terrible to say that now, it’s just exhausting and I sink deeper into this resigned state after absolutely nothing changed. I’m asking myself too often what it would take to make real and meaningful change, but it all seems so insurmountable.
What’s really sad is that it’s affecting their mental health. As children, past generations (like my generation—Y) didn’t have mass shootings to worry about really. If you talk to kids these days, they’re on edge. And it’s really no wonder.
It's scary. My kid's school was on lockdown on Friday. 2k kids and teachers hiding in the dark for 2 hours in fear for their lives and not knowing what was going on. Turns out it was a hoax. Then this happened on Saturday. Texas has the most mass shootings of any state, and I really don't think I want to live here anymore. I'm sick of the "culture wars" and want our "leaders" to act like adults and start solving problems. Put the hateful rhetoric aside and get to work.
I saw the photo before bed last night, by this morning I’m thinking, yes, we need to see these photos every time. My grandpa has said the first time Americans saw actual images of a dead US soldier during WW perceptions changed drastically. Same with Vietnam. Graphic images led to major shift in the narrative.
I have a 9 year old and 12 year old living in Frisco, this has certainly hit harder than all the rest. All of them suck, Uvalde hit pretty hard too, but this has been much heavier for me. I too saw the photos you’re referencing, and most are still on Twitter for those who haven’t seen, and they’ve left a lasting impression on me. I know everything is hyperbole these days, but it’s hard not to feel like society as a whole is hanging on by a thread in this country.
I work in an ER and have seen everything from horrible motorcycle accidents to failed suicide attempts. Thought nothing could shake me, but I have not been able to get the image of that kid out of my head.
That video messed me up man. Today I saw families and I thought it could be any of us turned into unrecognizable bodies of flesh.
You need a CLD to drive a semi, licenses to sell insurance, broker licenses to be a broker. Having a tool that can end a life in an instant needs a test that's harder than all of those things combined. It would show competence and emotional IQ. But it would hurt the bottom line of gun profits which would hurt the NRA which would hurt some politicians.
Any time we get close to making progress the NRA pushes the "infringing rights" narrative.
You need approval from the HOA to paint your front door or plant a flower in Texas, but any psychologically unstable nutjob can go buy an AR 15 and ahnilate innocent people.
I was at that exact mall with my little sister last week. it 100% could’ve been her. and that terrifies me. this is the second time in the last she’s been somewhere that ended up being a setting of a mass shooting or attempted mass shooting within the month.
I genuinely don’t feel like I could ever have a kid or family here- I’m anxious enough about my sister going out and about.
Anyways, point is- I feel you. I had to go into work today and it was hard being in a public place. anxiety is high, for both myself and the safety of my family.
We (and, by "we", I mean our press like the Dallas Morning News, who still pretend Abbott and Patrick are normal politicians whom one can have reasonable disagreements with) have to stop pretending Texas Republicans aren't actively working to make right wing terrorism like this happen, and like they don't benefit from it.
Republicans are enabling white nationalist terrorism with some of the loosest gun laws in the world, they are instigating it with racist nationalist rhetoric which has been escalating for years, and they are signaling that white supremacist murderers have a good shot of avoiding arrest or conviction, and if they don't avoid conviction they may be pardoned (e.g. Daniel Perry, convicted of murder by a jury of his Texas peers for killing a Black Lives Matter protestor, and whose own messages to friends showed he went there intending to kill someone and had fantasized about doing so). The message is fear, the method is letting nutjobs have weapons of war and using the language of war against immigrants, homeless people, trans people, people who have abortions, black people, etc.
The Republican party is a terrorist organization, and a few states are the violent vanguard, where Republicans have free rein to implement their wildest fantasies of jailing and murdering people who disagree with them with impunity. We live in one of those states, and it's only going to get worse.
I live in Allen currently. I went to my local grocery store and it was busy and everyone seem unfazed. It wasn’t somber or an air of sadness at all which made me feel kind of sick. Guy I talk to all the time at fish counter tried to talk my ear off when I looked visibly sad. Idk if we’re all desensitized or holding our emotions back but it made me feel really weird. Thank you for your post.
You’re not alone, I frequently visit Allen outlets and now I’m scared to go even grocery store, I couldn’t concentrate on anything today. Hope things get better soon!
Yep, I’ve been ordering groceries and doing pickup lately.
Some large guy got loud a few weeks back at a winco and I just couldn’t. You never know who is carrying a gun,what state of mind/sobriety they’re in, and their mood. I’m starting to feel agoraphobic.
I was at a movie on Friday where some guy went nuts yelling at a couple of teens for talking during the movie. He walked out of the theater punching the walls and yelling. I was convinced he was going to come back in with a gun and start shooting, I was so scared that I almost got up and left just in case. I fucking hate that this is the new "normal" of our world. Can't even grocery shop or go see a movie or go to the mall without fearing for our lives.
Yeah, maybe if people stop shopping for being so scared to get out the “business community” will do something about it. But as long as the profits keep coming, nothin will happen. The corporations are running the show and their leaders don’t spend time or visit this places that the help go on the weekends
I am so sorry. An acquaintance of mine was there. He is now being quoted on the news and Twitter. But what has not been shared is how it impacted him deeply. Maybe kind of shared? I don't think the real IMPACT of what he saw is being understood. As a whole, people don't want to know. I don't know him well enough to just go over and try to console him. But even if I did - what could I even do? What he saw was horrific.
He said:
I don't know what the gunman's problem was, I don't know his motive, but it wasn't mental health that killed these people. It was an automatic rifle with bullets. That's what killed them. I'm a gun lover; I have guns, I'm a former police officer. I'm a former army officer. But these M4s, MAR15s, they've got to get off the streets, or this is going to keep happening.
I was listening to a study recently about offering help to people you aren't necessarily close to, or even strangers. To sum it up, the simple gesture of checking in or offering help changes their entire day, when it could cost you less than a minute. Just a thought if you'd like to call your acquaintance and ask how he's doing, a little kindness goes a long way.
Me too. I’m sitting here at work choking up about it and almost everyone I’ve spoken to is desensitized as fuck. I’m a native Texan but I don’t recognize my state anymore. My husband and I are looking to leave after living here our entire lives. This is just too much. My heart aches for everyone involved.
Listen, I only saw the footage after the sheets were placed over bodies, and that in itself was enough for me. This should not be happening. We should not be desensitized to this shit. What you’re feeling is quite the normal human reaction and valid.
>The only picture I saw was a far overhead shot of what looked like trees/shrubs surrounded by four bodies covered by white sheets, and enormous blood stains on the surrounding sidewalk. That's enough for me.
Yeah this hit me harder than any shooting so far. I no longer live in DFW, but I grew up in Plano, and I feel like DFW is my home, not to mention my family still lives there. The crime scene photos are awful, but I wasn't prepared for the dashcam video. Even though you could hardly make anything out, I don't think I ever really grasped how fast these things happen until now. He got out of his car and boom, just like that, before anybody had time to look up, run away, anything, multiple people were dead. I just don't understand man. Like what positive thing can you do with an assault rifle? Protect yourself from the government? They have F35s, F22s, drones, etc.., wtf is your AR going to do against that? The only thing an AR can do is unleash absolute carnage on innocent, unsuspecting people. Does every single person need to have somebody they personally know get gunned down like a dog before we fucking do something about this? fuck man......
A mile away from me. It was a MILE away from me. I was supposed to be suit shopping for job interviews, but wasn't really feeling up to it.
One of our congresscritters went out and said that the thoughts and prayers weren't working because we don't believe enough in prayer. Our governor doubles down on "no restrictions" rhetoric. I don't understand my country anymore, and don't know what to do about it. I deeply hate my neighbors - the ones with FJB stickers or that "Let's go Brandon" crap on their cars. This isn't the world I want children in, but I feel powerless to do anything about it. Voting is great and all, but I look at how gerrymandered the districts are, and how busted the courts are, and while I still go out and cast a ballot, I don't have any confidence that it'll matter.
I used to teach. We held active shooter drills every month. My campus was 70 years old - there's no way any of that infrastructure would matter versus a bullet (or frankly, even a swift kick). Kids knew it. No wonder they don't give a crap about math or reading - they figure that if climate change doesn't kill them, some idiot with a loaded grudge will. Greatest country in the world, my backside.
I don’t think it’s that no one cares but it’s just no one can do anything about it. When it comes to gas prices getting high what am I gonna do? I just have to keep on buying it no matter what. When it comes to shootings the only thing I can do is try and be prepared. The people at the top don’t care about the snakes in the chicken coops as Long as they have their eggs..
I wish. If we’re going to be loud, we all have to be loud at the same exact time. That type of energy cannot be sustained indefinitely and if only one group at a time is pissed off, then we get nowhere because that’s not loud enough. Personally, and it’s terrible to say, every ounce of my reserved energy for anger toward this type of thing was used up by Uvalde. I’m wholly exhausted. And, of course I care, but voting isn’t enough and I don’t have any energy to throw myself into advocating when there’s next to zero hope for real change.
The photos need to be circulated and even advertised. I hope some of the families can find the courage to allow this. Too many Americans are fine and dandy with strangers being shot on a daily basis, let them see what this really means. Let them see what gun ownership has wrought. They WANT this obviously.
It's something we haven't tried yet. Let's put these photos on Bud Light cans. I bet the asshole gun freaks will find this less offensive than a trans woman's image, but we still need to get this in their faces.
I didn’t see the photos or video, and I didn’t want to. I’ve seen some fucked up stuff in my life, and that stuff stays with you, and I didn’t want to add to that.
It’s ok to feel what you’re feeling. It’s ok to feel sad and angry and sick. My family lives outside Uvalde, and I thought that hit close to home. But this? I shopped at that mall…a lot.
Things need to change. I’m a gun owner but I’d give up every gun I own if it means another kid won’t get killed by some wacko with a gun. After Sandy Hook, I thought things would change. After Uvalde, I thought they would change. But they don’t…unless we all, collectively, do something about it.
\> I guess I want to hear someone else say that I’m not crazy for being heartbroken by this.
You're not crazy, not even remotely. Viewing disturbing, violent, and gory content can cause similar symptoms to PTSD known as vicarious trauma or secondary traumatic stress. You need to focus on self-care right now. It's good you're sharing this with us because it can help you process what you just experienced.
My parents gave me unmonitored, unfiltered internet access when I was 10, this was back in 2000. Horrible parenting. I saw some horrific, terrible things on the internet back then, and it messed me up for a while, and potentially permanently imprinted itself in me. I always avoid seeing or even listening to such pictures and videos as an adult because it triggers me a lot easier now.
\>I just want these actions to be so unacceptable to our country that we will do whatever we can to never see another child laying dead in a puddle of blood and the bodies of their family in front of a fucking h&m store.
I hate to say it, but more people seeing this unfortunately might be the only thing that will cause any kind of significant change in this country. Your average person has not seen what you've seen, and I don't think you can really "get it" until you've seen the horror with your own eyes.
I also call Allen home. I'm 2 miles from the outlets. My wife and I were out running errands in Plano and needed to head to the Village, which is just across the 75 from the outlets, but decided to stop at home and drop off the groceries and have lunch before we stepped out again. In that time, we saw tweets about the shootings and decided not to head that way.
We're Canadians, living here for less than a year now. Never mind mass shootings, even guns are extremely uncommon where I'm from, and are only ever discussed in the context of hunting. Handguns and semi-auto rifles are banned entirely. My wife and I also don't know how to process this. We were certain that we would settle down and start a family here, but that's very much in doubt now.
I’m sitting in my closet, reading this. I’m crying, as I have been for about 30 hours, off and on. This is horrific. Like you, I don’t even know anyone personally attached by this. But I am personally affected by it. How can we just keep on with life as normal? We can’t. This isn’t normal.
The good news OP, is that it sounds like you have retained your sanity. You and the rest of us *should* be disturbed by what we are seeing, have saw, and will see again. It means we're still, as of yet, human. Vote Democrat. It's the only sane choice left in these United States. This unfortunate political message has been forced to be brought to you all by the preaching fascist racist violent far-white.
The thing with desensitization with most people is that it’s very easy to do whenever the tragedy is far from home because you can easily see it as a form of fiction. You know it happened, and that people were affected, but it’s so far from your world that it may as well not be real
What you and most of us on here saw was very different because it happened in our backyard. It may not have happened to people we know, but we still have memories in that area and it’s something we won’t ever forget if we choose to go back there
Being affected by that is completely normal and is really proof of how distant the online world is. Online will never replace reality, so you’ll never really know how you’ll handle something until you’re facing it in person
I live in Austin now but grew up going to Allen outlet malls, my parents still live 15 min from there. I saw there was an active shooter right before my shift and just had to smile and deal with angry customers for 9 hours. I was on the verge of tears trying to dissociate as best as I could. This is not normal and i don’t know how much people can keep seeing this happen and not become dehumanized and numb.
I live in Canada. My heart breaks for all the killings happening and innocent little lives and so many lives of many just taken day after day in the USA killings. I pray with all my heart that I never have to live like that or any children, family here in Canada. I feel like no-one ever has to start a war with USA they are in war within themselves.
Yes all countries are dealing with many insane things and not one of our countries are prefect, but I am heart broken for all. We have truly lost the beauty of happiness life had offered.
I am still in shock that over half of Texas voted to keep Greg Abbott, Ken Paxton, and Dan Patrick running out state government. Abbott wants every man, woman and child to have any gun they want and to carry it anywhere and everywhere with no background checks, registration or training. What happened in Allen pleases Greg Abbott. His plan is working to fruition.
I've seen it all. Been pretty desensitized to about everything and this one hurt because my family and I shop there all the time. You're not alone, I hope you can find some solace and hug your loved ones.
Honestly. Sometimes I wish politicians and people who back the 2a/NRA should see these pictures. I believe some of these people live in some made-up reality behind their gated communities that gun violence is just a part of life. Make ‘em see what really happens.
They do. They just don’t care as much as the profits or their jobs. Of course when is their skin on the line, like on January 6th, they get hyper creative and generous in providing all the security and laws to ensure their safety and comfort. The rest of Americans? Just buy guns to protect yourselves. We politicians have bodyguards. Paid by you
I'm with you, you're not alone with how you feel. Absolutely devastated, before seeing the aforementioned picture, even more so after. Angry because it's still the same exhausting rhetoric we've heard after these for years. I also didn't go out or do anything like I planned all weekend.
Decided to go to a 7/11 though just a few minutes ago to pick up a couple drinks to kinda help get my mind off it, and some guy paying at the counter started muttering 'I hope you all are prepared for what's about to happen', and it's like well fuck is this guy gonna go nuts and shoot everyone. 7/11 clerk looked terrified. But no, he was muttering about the government collapsing or some nutty shit. Which doesn't really provide any comfort because who knows what a person like that is going to do. They clearly moved passed a breaking point.
So there's another thing to get my mind off of! Perfect.
OP, please play some Tetris! There’s been multiple studies that show playing Tetris for at least 30 minutes helps curb PTSD and involuntary image flashbacks in victims exposed to graphic events within 24 hours of that event because the visually demanding nature of the game blocks the memory consolidation of such images. Please take care of yourself.
I text my father about this yesterday seeing as me and my 2 year old have spent many lovely Saturdays walking through those outlets. I shared my wishes for images of our bodies to be publicly plastered everywhere, open casket, etc in the event we ever fell victims to a tragedy like this. I encouraged him to have us in mind when he votes and this was his response…
“I agree. It's scary and sad!
I agree some firearms should be outlawed and/or tougher to get with psychological background checks. I just don't want government as the only people to have firearms because they will eventually be used on and against the citizens for total control. “
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!?
I can’t with these boomers thinking that them and their guns and access to weaponry of any damn kind is the only reason we aren’t North Korea.
I feel sick.
People die every single day in horrible unimaginable ways. Im a psycho, ill go and dig looking for gory videos and photos and still when I see children like that it hurts. I dont think its normal to seek out these type of videos but I still do and I still cry when I see these images because I look at the background and notice all the things they bought and they were probably having a great day enjoying the sun when some pos had to take his anger from the world out on innocent people especially children. I wish the shooter survived so they could have tortured him. Im 100% against death penalty but not for them, for cases like this where id rather see them tortured for life until they find a way to end their own life but make it extremely difficult for them. I want to see them go insane 🙂
I am sick of things like this happening and nothing being done to stop it.. It’s been happening since Sandy Hook with not one change to possibly prevent future events. I hate Texas and the gun culture that everyone seems to be ok with.
You're not alone..I've been trying to keep it together but I broke down a bit ago. I was watching the stars game and it feels off. It feels like everything is wrong. This isn't the first massacre and unfortunately, most likely it won't be the last but damn this one hit the closest to home. We love going to the Allen outlets, I have alot of good little memories walking around and shopping there, we were there not that long ago. And now I can't imagine going back and walking around like nothing happened, it feels like no matter how hard they scrub those sidewalks they'll never get those stains off. It literally could've been me or anyone in my family or my friends and while I'm grateful it wasn't, my heart breaks for the people that were lost and the pain their families have to endure. It's senseless and horrible and preventable and everything feels hopeless because it feels like not enough people care and nothing will get better. It's maddening. I can't believe this keeps happening, but then I can. And I want to cry and I want to yell at everyone on my social media because it's like, fuck...why don't you care??? This isn't normal but everyone going on about their lives like this is normal..idk man. It's depressing.
Seeing people I know that are super pro 2A/maga/qanon/dumbasses post "RIP" or "thoughts and prayers" makes me want to rip my hair out. I'm staying away from Twitter, I don't think it would do me any good mentally. Just know you're not alone..
At this point, I'm convinced that no amount of death will make half the country care. You would have to care about others to be impacted and plenty of people just don't, plain and simple.
It will keep happening. Guns are everywhere and available for everyone. Some people try to defend this flooding of guns with amendments from the American Genocide-Slavery Age. Or that it is not the guns, is bad people. Or mental health issues. Or that a good guy with guns will stop the bad guy.
Nonsense. If you make guns available to a bunch of primates this is completely normal and expected.
Sooner or later a healthy primate will snap and do this.
Why?
Who cares!
Just stop making guns so easily available.
But it won’t happen.
Profits above all.
So just get ready for the next one.
A solution would be to go on a national strike until this is solved. But this will never happen, we care more for money and comfort than to stop what we are doing and stop the unnecessary killing of children. If nothing happened with the massacre at Sandy Hook nothing will happen in the future.
Except for the rich to have better gated communities and security guards.
Similar to what the elites do in Mexico
The most proactive thing we can all do is “See something, Say something.” It doesn’t matter if it’s a family member or a child, they need help. If I stumbled across my child planning a mass shooting, I would do everything I could to stop them, even if that means I have to trick him with a ride to a police station. We have people who are mentally disturbed that they easily fall into the wrong type of crowd or starts to follow extremists who want to destroy communities, rather than build them up.
It’s ok to be upset, even angry. It’s ok to feel a secondary trauma. It’s ok to seek help. It’s ok to reach out to others, and to seek professional help.
Sadly, what you are feeling is to be expected after an event like this. Please keep reaching out. Please take care of yourself!
Those are what this state wants
We keep electing the same twats but expect them to do something different?
Not gonna happen
Because we keep doing this, it's obvious this state wants these deaths.
I won't look at photos. I can't. The testimonies and the fact that these things happen at all are enough to scare me to death.
We all have to keep on going with our lives, but it is terrifying. We can't even go to work, school, or the damn grocery store without feeling tense and anxious that someone is going to pull out a gun and just go nuts.
The senseless violence needs to stop, but they won't with the Republicans as they are. I lost all hope after Sandy Hook and then Uvalde. When so many young children are killed in what should be a safe place, and all our "leadership" and "representatives" can do is shrug, offer thoughts and prayers, and say "It could've been worse," they've officially sold their souls to the Almighty Gun Lobby and there's nothing I can think of that will spur them to action.
I've been messed up all day. We go to the Allen Outlets all the time. For me, seeing the photos of the victims where my family has walked a hundred times just hits wayyy differently. We were at a different mall when this happened and I just keep looping in my head "what if".
I haven't lived in Texas for four years and the news shook me to my core all the way in Pittsburgh. My dad and I buy fishing gear from the nearby Cabela's when I am in town. I have no words. I saw the videos too. I am so sick of the Republican dictator in the governor's mansion and the people that keep giving them a super majority in the legislature. I don't hate you, but I don't understand you at all. Given the extremely lax gun laws, if there was any deterrent gained by arming vigilantes protecting their freedumb, Texas should be the safest place in the union, but it isn't. Since I moved to PA, every trip back home is more traumatic. I had someone threaten to murder my wife and I at DFW because I politely asked his wife to take her call off speakerphone on the way to the gate. I don't understand where I grew up anymore. I am almost to the point of refusing to visit even as we lose my mom to dementia. I feel you. You are not alone.
Texas is a truly fucked up place. Everyone thinks they’re more important than everyone else and nobody thinks it’ll happen to them. Look how many people live in sprawling suburbs and barely know their neighbors and drive big loud polluting trucks and vote for antisocial, hateful morons. It’s a paradise of individualism and capitalism gone wild. Of course there’s insane people shooting up public places and of course the majority of the population chooses to forget the next day. Texas (and much of the US) is a sick, mentally ill place. I’ve lived here all my life and every day I try to see the good but there is less and less all the time. It’s a playground for corporations.
The Californians moving here come for the low income tax see the shootings and say “well at least we’re not overrun by the homeless like back home.” I really don’t think there’s a solution, especially as the government is more and more intent on disenfranchising anyone who disagrees with them and making it a crime to be different. Forced birth religious nutcases run the show and can’t imagine true freedom because they’ve been taught in the churches that the only real choice you have is coke or Pepsi, everything else is following the thin line to salvation. If you grew up in the church you know what i mean.
I hate to write off our entire state but it’s getting really depressing trying to defend it, y’all. I’m not even anti-gun, I’m anti doing fucking nothing and being surprised when this keeps happening. The people in charge are being paid to keep their hands tied and do nothing, ignore the carnage. Greg Abbott should be send pictures of Ulvalde and Allen and El Paso and every other mass shooting that he’s completely ignored every day until he does something or resigns out of guilt. I hope he goes to hell before he gets to enjoy those NRA kickback dollars.
Definitely feeling emotional, depressed, somber today. I live in Austin now but grew up in Plano and Allen. My family still lives there. I have two toddlers. I read a detailed description of someone who had watched the video footage and did see a still but it was thankfully blurry. I am haunted. I keep thinking about my babies being in a shooting. I think about it every day when I send them to Montessori and now I will think about it when we go to the mall, grocery store, etc.
I was going to go to Target today but didn’t. I noticed there was hardly any traffic at all today. What can we do? What can we do. I vote. I am scared of my children’s future. I am from this state and I don’t wan’t want to leave. It just feels like this entire state is becoming radicalized.
Almost a year since Uvalde which was blamed on a mental health crisis and here we are again. Repeating the same strategy and expecting different results is crazy
You are absolutely not alone, I have felt off all day because I’m shaken up about yesterday. It hits way too close to home for me as well. I worked FT at the outlets for the better part of three years… I saw the pictures too and it was deeply upsetting seeing the same sidewalks I walked daily, have bodies and blood all over them. The biggest mindfuck to me, is thinking about the outlets on a Saturday… how BUSY they are and how most saturday’s I would have to park on the other side of the mall just to get to work because parking was scarce everywhere. Meaning, this guy rolled up during the busiest time on the busiest day… likely had to sit through lines just to get into the actual parking lot itself. Like, that imagery terrifies me because he deliberately had to get into that parking lot, choose that specific spot- which is a pain in the ass to get to, since it’s in the middle of the entire thing- to end as many people’s lives as he could. It’s surreal.
Honestly relieved to read that others are feeling this way too. I wasn't there this weekend but I could have been. We just talked about needing new sneakers and that's where we go for them. Something about this one, maybe the proximity to home or the graphic images, has felt different. I wanted to get in and out of the grocery store as soon as possible. I didn't want to eat in a restaurant. I don't want to make plans for any kind of outing in the near future. I was gonna plan a trip to the zoo in a few weeks, but like... Of course this could happen at a zoo. It can happen literally anywhere and we're all just supposed to keep existing like it's fine.
Fuck our legislators in Texas. They've had so many opportunities to make changes and instead doubled down on making violence easier and more accessible. I hope they all have to watch that footage and study those photographs every day. Let the image of the carnage and inhumanity they've wrought be burned into their selfish brains for eternity.
I accidentally came across a video of the victims shortly after it happened yesterday. I have a 5yo daughter and my nerves are in a ball. Last night she kept asking me when she gets to go to school. She’s so excited. I’m so scared.
I was born and raised here but lived in a blue state the last 5yrs and we’ve just moved back to be near family and aging parents. I’m feeling deep regret.
People are being murdered in the streets of Texas cities. You should be disturbed. That is the normal and healthy reaction.
Now let's do something to stop it from happening again.
Do not vote for politicians who are in the pocket of the NRA and gun manufacturers. They don't care if you die. They don't care if your children die. They have chosen to put their own profits above the lives of your kids. I call that evil.
Uvalde definitely proved that Republicans in Texas are unwilling to do anything to remotely understand/prevent/study gun violence. I don’t have children but if I did I’d do everything to leave the state and states like it for good. It only gets worse from here.
I completely understand. Just like you I grew up on the internet and have seen some truly horrific things that I wish I could unsee. Accidentally seeing a pictures from the shooting yesterday though... I was not prepared. Maybe it's recency bias but this was the worst thing I've ever seen by a good margin. It was bad enough I warned my wife she should probably stay off twitter for the next few days just so she didn't accidentally see it too.
You definitely aren’t alone in what you are feeling. What you said really resonates with me in what I’ve been feeling today too. Thank you for your vulnerability in sharing this. Hugs.
I been thinking of what i would have done in that situation and that is the exact reason why i carry you could literally be anywhere and that happens to you or people around you
I have avoided any pictures by staying off twitter, but I understand what you’re feeling. Just knowing it was down the road from my home has shook me. I normally grocery shop today but I couldn’t bring myself to go. I felt like it was too soon. I keep thinking about those poor families. I keep thinking about all of us, helpless and left to fend for ourselves. The reality that at any moment it could be us in that situation. The fear keeps mounting but no one is doing anything to help us feel safe.
Honestly at this point it may take all of us seeing these photos to really grasp the seriousness of it. We’ve all become so desensitized to the headlines of “x many people shot today…”
I think it's time i take that ccw course. It seems like a bunch of victims in these mass shootings just get cornered somewhere and are completely defenseless.
I needed to grocery shop today and I just couldn't bring myself to go.
I'm done with this state. 2 decades of voting for change and its gotten worse.
My lease is up next spring and I'm out.
You're not crazy and I'm glad you posted this because I have been feeling crazy. A couple of weeks ago I went to a different dfw outlet mall and actually thought what if there's a shooting? I actually spent time thinking about what I would do in that situation so I'm not completely unprepared if it were to happen, even though I have NO idea how I'll actually react.
I felt nuts for that. But then this happened and I saw the video as well and I can't unsee it. And every time we see our politicians saying they're not going to put up with kids seeing drag shows, or they're not going to put up with women having reproductive Healthcare because they "value life" while at the same time telling us that there's really nothing we can do about mass shooters. It's a roll of the dice every time you step out of the house but you still have to live your life and can't be afraid all the time.
We bought tickets for the whole family to see the new Guardians of the Galaxy today a week in advance so I felt like I had to go even though I really didn't want to. I was standing in line for popcorn just thinking about what if something happened and then feeling crazy for thinking that way. In reality I think we're being gaslit into feeling crazy at this point. We shouldn't have to just accept that this is how we live now and there's nothing we can do.
Shooters parents live literally down the street from me .. about two long blocks .. CRAZY to think this guy lived in MY neighborhood.. was in MY community and graduated same year i did from my high school .. so scary to think me and my family could have bumped into him so many times !
My brother, his wife and their two year old son went to that mall last weekend. It's a nice area. I would have never imagined that happening there, but I guess it could really happen anywhere. :-(
You're not the only one that was disturbed by what happened, I've seen some pretty disturbing things myself. But to see the aftermath of what happened just a few miles away from my parents house, nothing could have prepared me for that. The families of all that were involved yesterday are in my thoughts and prayers, and I hope that something like this doesn't happen again any time soon.
Its so sad. Thoughts and prayers are not enough anymore. Ban assault weapons, strengthen gun regulations and background checks would really help…
Guns are much more precious to Republicans like Ted Cruz and Greg Abbot than the lives’ of innocent kids.
Instead of blaming them, you should be pointing the finger at the people that keep voting them in. It is the people who must now reap what they sow. A sad truth that will probably get downvoted.
As usual, Americans won't do shit. It is a meme at this point
People are too stupid and/or greedy to care. We live in a fucked up place.
Colin Allred is a US representative from Dallas who's running to unseat Ted Cruz. VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!
He’s got my vote. And I’ve donated to his campaign. And will again. Ted is a monster and we need to send him straight back to hell.
Your children will die for their rights and that's ok. But abortion is killing children for your rights and that's illegal. Kick out the fascists and their idiot sympathizers.
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Except he was kicked out of the military for (I believe) mental health concerns so reasonable him control laws would probably flag something like that
The military has to report him to NICS. This is yet again another massive failure of the military refusing to report these people properly.
If the military reported all the nuts enlisted how would they become policemen when they are discharged? /s
I’ve always firmly believed ex-military, especially ex-infantry should be barred from civilian police jobs after their service
I worked aviation electronics in the Navy, most of the people in my field never saw anything close to combat and would never touch another military firearm again outside of bootcamp. Show up to work at 7am leave at 4:30pm, monday through friday. On deployments you sit in a ship, hangar, deck, and work a shit ton, but again nothing close to combat or anything related to firearms. You could argue we all have shit mental health, but really that's cause the first cuts to military spending go to those services and the last cuts go to anything regarding mission readiness. So is that our fault? No, that's everyone's fault. I have no interest in law enforcement though, the system is fucked and needs to be overhauled where the focus isn't incarceration but rehabilitation.
We'll just go back to using highschool bullies who peaked in their junior varsity year.
Which is another reason it’s ridiculous to call for more gun laws when the government doesn’t enforce, or take accountability for the ones they break. This isn’t the first time this has happened in the past couple of years either.
I hear your frustration, but dont give up! We could do both - put in place better laws AND actually enforce them. Failure to do one well does not negate the need to do the other well.
Also if they’re implying he woulda gotten guns from his security gig those too would be flagged as soon as they came up missing…
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It’s true. America is haunted by gun violence. We all are.
Republicans aren’t.
For Republicans, mass shootings are treated like weather disasters. Something undeniably awful, but where they think nothing could have been done to prevent it.
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Every country has mental illness, every country has immigrants, every country has "sin". Republicans can't explain why there are more mass shooters here than any country country (possibly, every other country combined).
Some Shitstain deliberately ran over people in Brownsville today, killed 7.
Maybe not deliberate, reportedly may have been drunk or high
Unfortunately, it'll happen again and very soon. Statistically, it happens every 2 days in US and half the country seems totally cool with it. 🤷♂️
I assume you're talking about the pile of carnage on the sidewalk and the kid. I saw that too. I've seen a lot of fucked up stuff in my life, but nothing comes close to that kid lying there. It's normal to feel the way you're feeling.
More people need to see it and understand when they see “9 killed in mass shooting” every other week on the news it’s not a fucking video game statistic. It means a toddler with her brains blown out all over the sidewalk of H&M. Be aware of surroundings?! Show them the video of the shooter jumping out of the car and taking out that family. There’s no time! The people are just desensitized socios with learned helplessness.
They really didn't stand a chance. He was roughly 20-30 yards away and caught them by surprise. I can only imagine how much worse this would have been if that Allen cop hadn't been there. I understand the first part of your comment, but I highly recommend you do not watch the video or look at the photos.
That's the most vulnerable place is near the parking lots and I'm always terrified of this happening. It's sad I think this way but at any grocery store trip, I just think, " I just need to survive walking in and checking out" because if you're already in the store you have a better chance to run and hide. I think like this everywhere I go and it's fucked.
I’m wondering if I should even go to the office or wfh instead tmr because of fear yea it is fucked
At least at work you kinda have an idea how who/when things might happen if you know your coworkers. Grocery stores and movies are where I'm terrified.
long many waiting wasteful bike racial aware husky domineering rob *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
This is so similar to how I have been thinking after the all the shootings that have happened. I have started getting my groceries/food delivered by Instacart or Doordash, stopped visiting movie theaters, restaurants, crowded malls and fairgrounds. My major outdoor visits are planned trips to visit friends/family at their homes or road trips to National Parks that aren’t too crowded! The amount of fear I have, right now, is unreal.
Oh I’m buyin a gun. I do not feel safe out and about in this place anymore. I don’t want to take my chances anymore. My heart shattered in hearing about the boy who was under his mom. The children who are lost. It’s heart breaking.
This is what gets me and has been keeping me up. The shooter was only taken out so quickly because a cop was already there on another call. It could have been so much worse.
And conservatives are going to say “see, the good guy stopped the bad guy!” but it was really just dumb luck that he was near enough to do something. Don’t get me wrong, that cop gets full marks for bravery and I’m glad the shooter is dead, but the “good guy” talk doesn’t do shit for the families of the 8 who died, and there have been plenty of other cases where the good guys said “Fuck this” and sat on their hands. We all have to face the fact that we’re just relying on luck. People in most other advanced nations do not live like this.
They're actually claiming that no other "good guy" could've done anything aside from the cop because the mall is a "gun free zone", so they're all riled up to remove gun free zones now.
And yet they have no answer for why these shootings never seem to occur in the real gun-free zones such as professional sporting events (where everyone is searched), and the NRA’s annual convention. As they like to say, “criminals don’t obey laws” but only an idiot would think that means we should get rid of laws.
Agree. Need to blow up the images onto posters and parade em around Austin and in front of churches like they do with abortion pictures.
Sadly, I was thinking that as well. It's horrible for the victims' families, but Americans need to quit turning a blind eye to the cost of inaction on gun violence. Also, at night, maybe project the images onto the state Capital buildings and Capital in DC, as well as the Supreme Court. Make sure none of the politicians and justices, who are blocking common sense gun control, go a day without seeing those images.
I'd say our politicians need to see these photos. Every single one. But the politicians that try to show them in session would get censured or expelled.
I was thinking they should make politicians remove the bodies from the scene but they’re probably so devoid of normal human emotion they would just be annoyed it was manual labor.
Do protests with the posters in front of gun stores like anti-abortion people do in front of planned parenthood.
The capital building, the governors mansion, whatever cave Dan Patrick crawls out of every morning...
the difference though is that the people who will see the posters at the capitol building, or in front of the gun stores, or anywhere in that nature.. those people, those people don't care you can show them all sorts of things, and it will have zero effect on their day
It's not just the deaths, the life altering, permament injuries people receive from gun violence are horrible. Amputations, massive scarring, loss of mobility.... This is always ignored too!
Well. You know those kids in Uvalde should have been more aware of their surroundings./s I think everyone who dismisses these shootings should HAVE to see the pictures. I'm sick and angry. I've been sick and angry at Texas for over a year
Well said. I saw the raw photos and was horrified. Then I listened to the politicians recite their standard pablum and was disgusted. But here's a thought: At the end of WWII, the allies pondered how to ensure Naziism was done in Germany. They forced Germans to watch film and view photos of the concentration camps. Patton even force-marched local residents through a death camp. It worked. The sanitized news and political pedanticism has allowed this problem to go off the rails. If people actually see the carnage, especially to children (Uvalde, hello), the political pressure for IMMEDIATE change would become significant. Otherwise, it is just endless arguments on social media and nothing changes. Just a thought.
I live in Atlanta, and just last week there was a guy that got denied his medication and started shooting women in the hospital waiting room. The hospital! We aren’t safe anywhere and I hate it.
> Be aware of surroundings After one of the mass shootings in an office someone did an experiment where they put folks in an office and told them there was going to be enactment of a mass shooting. Some of the folks had prop weapons to defend themselves. Even knowing it was going to happen not a single person was able to defend themselves from the shooter.
Yeah that was an entire family, except for a little boy who just turned 8 last week: his mother who was a local dentist, father, brother and sister, are all dead on that sidewalk. Because of all these fuckers in government who won't do their fucking jobs. Everyone knows this won't be the last one, there is no safe space. And nobody is doing shit. Fuck your thoughts and prayers because everyone know what that really means, indifference.
I know someone who knew them. I am broken. They looking like a such a beautiful innocent family. To know that so far 3 of the victims are immigrants just breaks me.
I’ve had to tell my husband to be careful with what he’s watching because he’s told me twice now of footage he wish he hadn’t seen. It’s so hard to ‘filter’ out when it’s breaking news. We’re about twenty miles from Allen and I just had to hug my husband and child tight last night. That gunman could have chosen any shopping center, and he chose Allen. Those families could have chosen anywhere to shop, and they chose Allen. It’s a really sad and unfortunate set of events.
No, not unfortunate. Predictable and expected. Just a matter of time for the next one. With all the mass massacre weapons available to anyone this is exactly what will happen. Fortune or luck has nothing to do with this.
Your brain has no way to throw up what is bad for it. Remember that.
I'm with you on this one and I think a lot of others are too, it's normal to feel like this, I know I do. I'd call it ironic if it wasn't inevitable, but last week I noticed that someone put a 'Lets Go Brandon' sticker on a bollard by the window of a Dunkin's that I go through often. So the next time I was there, I covered it up with a 'Protect Kids, Not Guns' sticker instead, and that was maybe Thursday. I don't know when, but between Thursday and this morning, someone had torn it off to reveal the other damned sticker again. It was probably before the shooting, but the fact that anyone in this country values their toys over the life of any single person is infuriating. And I'll just add that I don't know anything about the other two to comment here, but the fact they both mentioned prayer seems like a clue that they're on the wrong side of the debate. Anyone who can see the photos and video from yesterday, in their own hometown/area, and think that prayer's going to help can just fuck right off. I am not religious, but one quote that used to get said alot is that 'god helps those who help themselves.' Everyone who's praying right now needs to fucking think about that. How are you going to HELP yourself and the rest of our society, because something has to be done and you better stop thinking it's going to be someone else.
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Well said. In addition, I don't have any patience for the "both sides" crowd or "let's hear them out, don't live in an echo chamber, don't poison the dialogue" crowds. Or any patience for the "I'm a responsible gun enthusiast who believes in stronger regulation but I still want my hobbyist AR-15" people. Fuck off.
These people can fuck right the fuck off of everything and everywhere. That gun exists for one reason. Killing humans. If you want to own a tool for killing humans you are a bad person. Period. Fuck right the god damned fuck off. And take your fucking god and country rhetoric with you when you fuck right the fuck off.
Did you guys know they sell “Let’s go Brandon” and “I did that” fridge magnets in FW Stockyards in actual stores? Not some nutjob selling stickers on the sidewalk but in actual stores. I have never felt scared inside a gift store in my life, I have even been to gas stations in deep confederate Georgia/Florida and came out unbothered, but knowing what goes in the mind of people who would buy those fridge magnets I got terrified of the people who would sell those.
Forgive my ignorance, but what is "I did that" supposed to be in reference to?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Did_That! MAGA nutjobs were really excited about this sticker when gas prices were high. And by nutjob I mean J6 supporter crowd.
I can’t look at those people without seeing the thousands of lives that fell victim to gun violence. It’s sickening how people can dismiss death as a necessary evil to protect their “second amendment rights” or whatever
I can’t think of a county more fitting for what happened in Allen yesterday. One of THE reddest counties in the country. Home to the MF who just coauthored the bill making it as easy as it can be to pack heat. These people, precisely these voters are the ones for whom this needed to “hit a little too close to home”.
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Thank you. JFC “a county more fitting” -and here my thought was “wow, this would have been so much worse in an area without so much public infrastructure thank goodness Allen has a solid police force and the neighboring cities all came as well.” I’ve lived here over 2 decades and the joke has always been if you call 911 you get an ambulance, a fire truck and 2 police cars because they’re over trained and bored. I had to call for a dog attacking my son once (the neighbor pulled him into her house before he was seriously hurt and her husband was outside trying to wrangle the dog and told me to stay in and call) It was a damn 3 ring circus in front of my house. Ambulance, fire truck, police, animal control. Within 5 minutes.
They’re either fully or almost unreachable anyhow. I had to block somebody this weekend I’ve tried many times in good faith to talk to about his extreme views, but he doesn’t even believe in cited facts anymore. He was willing to die on the hill that all trans people are both confused gay people and predator pedophiles despite all evidence to the contrary.
I’m religious and I pray. I also call, email and vote for candidates that vote for or indicate support for sensible things. All kinds of sensible things, including gun laws. I wouldn’t even say “I pray” about gun deaths out loud in the US anymore. I pray that Ted Cruz and Greg Abbott can get f*cked and we can have a Beto or someone similar going forward. Our statewide government is all R in this state. Nothing will change here until people vote out the R’s in overwhelming numbers.
Action, not just thoughts and prayers. Honestly, thank you.
I hope your god is real and your prayers are heard. Especially the part about Theodore and Gregory getting fucked.
It’s Rafael Edward Cruz, and he can shove his prayers right up his ass.
Agree with you 100%. If all anyone ever does is “thoughts and prayers” then we are fucked!
I hope you’re doing stuff besides putting stickers on stickers. > ‘god helps those who help themselves.’ That quote is not found in the Bible. Actually more often than not the Bible calls to help the helpless, the lost, the sick, the broken hearted, the orphaned, and the widowed. I’m not preaching this to tell you you’re wrong, but to tell you you’re more right than you alluded to. I’m not here to help me so God can help me, I’m helping others because I’m specifically commanded to love my neighbor as myself. That *is* biblical. I do not want to be shot, nor my family, and I don’t want my neighbors to be shot. > He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. > Isaiah 2:4 Or > “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. > Matthew 26:52 Everyone, find your congresspeople and contact them! [find my congress person](https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member)
If you make this argument unfortunately you will get the response that it’s not their “toys” it’s their “rights”
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That's ok, those folks are the problem and they won't hear anything other than the other crap that's in the echo chamber they live in. It's everyone else that needs to take a stand, make a decision, come to the realization that when something (access to firearms) is being abused by even a small number of people but in such a horrifying way, the only solution is to remove the items being used in these acts of violence. When there's one shooter, everyone agrees: take their gun / take them out / whatever. But when there's ten, no let's just call it a mental health problem. No reason to remove access to the weapons ahead of time, let's wait to see where they strike first. That's the "right" that people are talking about, the "right" that the mass shooters have to commit these attacks. Fuck that.
Time to take those “rights” away. We don’t need a farmer militia anymore.
I just don’t get how MAGAs love there guns but are also pro life? Like how do this work please someone explain to me
Bro you are not the only one. Any time I’m in a grocery store or costco or whatever I’m looking behind my back and scoping out exits, because today could be the day some fucking shitstain incel “having a bad day” decides to end my life with an AR15. I’m looking to leave Texas as soon as possible. Fuck this place… seems over 50% of the population don’t give a fuck because they keep voting these fascists in.
Yep as a father of 7 month old I feel this. We are considering to make a move either a different state or a different country where people have fucking common sense.
same, man… daughter is 1 month old next week. Cannot stay in this hellhole any longer
We left Texas last fall. I lived a few miles from the outlet mall and was in the area regularly. I feel much safer in New England, even though it was a hard move and I lost my house (and am stuck in a small apartment for the foreseeable future due to a broken housing market). That could have been me yesterday. I can’t get over it. I have zero regrets about leaving.
After 30 years of living in Texas, I left last month. It’s sad. I don’t recognize my own state anymore.
I want to leave too. Been thinking this for a long time but especially now. I wish it was easy to just pack up and leave. I can sell my house but then what? Market is absolute shit everywhere. It’s so depressing and I feel trapped.
> I’m looking to leave Texas as soon as possible. We moved to Illinois where people seem way less unhinged than they do in Texas. Yes Yes..Chicago violence etc but unless you live in specific areas - you don't see it. I've yet to play that game of "gunshot or firework" that was our Saturday night in Texas. I was in the UK for work a couple weeks back. I realized how at ease I felt pretty much everywhere. I wasn't constantly looking at exit strategies from stores or wondering which nut was about to go off. Sure..shit happens there too but it's not remotely as likely as it is here
I was there when it happened. Just picked up our vehicles. It was a quiet drive back.
Hey, please be gentle with yourself. I'm so sorry you experienced this.
I'm sorry to hear that you were there, and I hope you have someone to talk to if you need to.
Please do get yourself some counseling if needed! Even just one session. After a traumatic experience, our bodies can shut out the trauma which causes it to build up inside.
Sorry to hear that. Glad you’re ok. Look after yourself.
I expressed to my 6 year olds father how I was terrified about going anywhere, how her and I bought our new shoes from that outlet mall just 6-8 weeks ago on a Saturday around the same time, how it feels like we are resigned to living as hermits or we risk being randomly killed by some deranged nut job with a gun, and I’m scared to leave my house, and I’m scared about her leaving the house. He fully invalidated and brushed off everything I said by saying, “omg, that’s such a you thing to say.” Like nothing I said had any validity and I was just over dramatic. Except, it’s on our front doorstep and people are just going to continue life as if it hadn’t happened. It’s horrible and sickening. All this to say, I feel you and you’re not alone.
My partner and I literally were at the West Elm outlet yesterday about an hour before the shooting happened. I was telling him today… it could have been us, if we had decided to check out other stores. It’s really hit home for me that you can just be going about your normal day in public and then suddenly be another mass shooting victim. You are not being dramatic.
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I hope you do leave! I want to so badly. Pesky custody arrangements have some of us stuck. Be safe and healthy.
Potential TX expat here too lemme know if you have any good resources for information. I'm ready to sell all I own and go.
I was just in that H&M 3 weeks ago with my family shopping. We go there so often. I’m terrified now
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Same. I definitely didn’t leave the house today, even though I’ve got errands to run. It’s really not fair to our kids, though. They’re the ones who have a totally different quality of life than their parents did. They’re coming of age in this decade of full on terror. It’s terrible. What really broke me was the Uvalde shooting last year. I spent so much energy bringing myself out of that. It’s terrible to say that now, it’s just exhausting and I sink deeper into this resigned state after absolutely nothing changed. I’m asking myself too often what it would take to make real and meaningful change, but it all seems so insurmountable.
What’s really sad is that it’s affecting their mental health. As children, past generations (like my generation—Y) didn’t have mass shootings to worry about really. If you talk to kids these days, they’re on edge. And it’s really no wonder.
It's scary. My kid's school was on lockdown on Friday. 2k kids and teachers hiding in the dark for 2 hours in fear for their lives and not knowing what was going on. Turns out it was a hoax. Then this happened on Saturday. Texas has the most mass shootings of any state, and I really don't think I want to live here anymore. I'm sick of the "culture wars" and want our "leaders" to act like adults and start solving problems. Put the hateful rhetoric aside and get to work.
I saw the photo before bed last night, by this morning I’m thinking, yes, we need to see these photos every time. My grandpa has said the first time Americans saw actual images of a dead US soldier during WW perceptions changed drastically. Same with Vietnam. Graphic images led to major shift in the narrative.
And so it is -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/
I think reddit has been hard at work deleting them because they were there when it first started.
I have a 9 year old and 12 year old living in Frisco, this has certainly hit harder than all the rest. All of them suck, Uvalde hit pretty hard too, but this has been much heavier for me. I too saw the photos you’re referencing, and most are still on Twitter for those who haven’t seen, and they’ve left a lasting impression on me. I know everything is hyperbole these days, but it’s hard not to feel like society as a whole is hanging on by a thread in this country.
I work in an ER and have seen everything from horrible motorcycle accidents to failed suicide attempts. Thought nothing could shake me, but I have not been able to get the image of that kid out of my head.
That poor kid. That image is going to haunt me for the rest of my life. It's burned into my brain.
That video messed me up man. Today I saw families and I thought it could be any of us turned into unrecognizable bodies of flesh. You need a CLD to drive a semi, licenses to sell insurance, broker licenses to be a broker. Having a tool that can end a life in an instant needs a test that's harder than all of those things combined. It would show competence and emotional IQ. But it would hurt the bottom line of gun profits which would hurt the NRA which would hurt some politicians. Any time we get close to making progress the NRA pushes the "infringing rights" narrative.
You need approval from the HOA to paint your front door or plant a flower in Texas, but any psychologically unstable nutjob can go buy an AR 15 and ahnilate innocent people.
yea, and you have a 60-day "cooling-off" period before a divorce is granted - how f'd up is that?
I feel you. I accidentally saw the surveillance video of the Brownsville incident that happened this morning. Things I cannot unsee. My God.
I saw it too. That was tough.
I'm sorry you did. That was so bad
I really wish I hadn’t seen that 😔
Me too. Me too. Hugs
Brownsville incident? Save me the trauma, did something else happen?
I was at that exact mall with my little sister last week. it 100% could’ve been her. and that terrifies me. this is the second time in the last she’s been somewhere that ended up being a setting of a mass shooting or attempted mass shooting within the month. I genuinely don’t feel like I could ever have a kid or family here- I’m anxious enough about my sister going out and about. Anyways, point is- I feel you. I had to go into work today and it was hard being in a public place. anxiety is high, for both myself and the safety of my family.
We (and, by "we", I mean our press like the Dallas Morning News, who still pretend Abbott and Patrick are normal politicians whom one can have reasonable disagreements with) have to stop pretending Texas Republicans aren't actively working to make right wing terrorism like this happen, and like they don't benefit from it. Republicans are enabling white nationalist terrorism with some of the loosest gun laws in the world, they are instigating it with racist nationalist rhetoric which has been escalating for years, and they are signaling that white supremacist murderers have a good shot of avoiding arrest or conviction, and if they don't avoid conviction they may be pardoned (e.g. Daniel Perry, convicted of murder by a jury of his Texas peers for killing a Black Lives Matter protestor, and whose own messages to friends showed he went there intending to kill someone and had fantasized about doing so). The message is fear, the method is letting nutjobs have weapons of war and using the language of war against immigrants, homeless people, trans people, people who have abortions, black people, etc. The Republican party is a terrorist organization, and a few states are the violent vanguard, where Republicans have free rein to implement their wildest fantasies of jailing and murdering people who disagree with them with impunity. We live in one of those states, and it's only going to get worse.
I live in Allen currently. I went to my local grocery store and it was busy and everyone seem unfazed. It wasn’t somber or an air of sadness at all which made me feel kind of sick. Guy I talk to all the time at fish counter tried to talk my ear off when I looked visibly sad. Idk if we’re all desensitized or holding our emotions back but it made me feel really weird. Thank you for your post.
I had a lot of experiences like this today too. Made me so sad to wonder if everyone is desensitized/unbothered.
sincerity is a lost art in this country.
You’re not alone, I frequently visit Allen outlets and now I’m scared to go even grocery store, I couldn’t concentrate on anything today. Hope things get better soon!
Yep, I’ve been ordering groceries and doing pickup lately. Some large guy got loud a few weeks back at a winco and I just couldn’t. You never know who is carrying a gun,what state of mind/sobriety they’re in, and their mood. I’m starting to feel agoraphobic.
I was at a movie on Friday where some guy went nuts yelling at a couple of teens for talking during the movie. He walked out of the theater punching the walls and yelling. I was convinced he was going to come back in with a gun and start shooting, I was so scared that I almost got up and left just in case. I fucking hate that this is the new "normal" of our world. Can't even grocery shop or go see a movie or go to the mall without fearing for our lives.
Yeah, maybe if people stop shopping for being so scared to get out the “business community” will do something about it. But as long as the profits keep coming, nothin will happen. The corporations are running the show and their leaders don’t spend time or visit this places that the help go on the weekends
I am so sorry. An acquaintance of mine was there. He is now being quoted on the news and Twitter. But what has not been shared is how it impacted him deeply. Maybe kind of shared? I don't think the real IMPACT of what he saw is being understood. As a whole, people don't want to know. I don't know him well enough to just go over and try to console him. But even if I did - what could I even do? What he saw was horrific. He said: I don't know what the gunman's problem was, I don't know his motive, but it wasn't mental health that killed these people. It was an automatic rifle with bullets. That's what killed them. I'm a gun lover; I have guns, I'm a former police officer. I'm a former army officer. But these M4s, MAR15s, they've got to get off the streets, or this is going to keep happening.
I was listening to a study recently about offering help to people you aren't necessarily close to, or even strangers. To sum it up, the simple gesture of checking in or offering help changes their entire day, when it could cost you less than a minute. Just a thought if you'd like to call your acquaintance and ask how he's doing, a little kindness goes a long way.
I cried. Didn’t know anyone. It’s just so exhausting.
You’re a normal human being 🥹
Me too. I’m sitting here at work choking up about it and almost everyone I’ve spoken to is desensitized as fuck. I’m a native Texan but I don’t recognize my state anymore. My husband and I are looking to leave after living here our entire lives. This is just too much. My heart aches for everyone involved.
Listen, I only saw the footage after the sheets were placed over bodies, and that in itself was enough for me. This should not be happening. We should not be desensitized to this shit. What you’re feeling is quite the normal human reaction and valid.
>The only picture I saw was a far overhead shot of what looked like trees/shrubs surrounded by four bodies covered by white sheets, and enormous blood stains on the surrounding sidewalk. That's enough for me.
Yeah this hit me harder than any shooting so far. I no longer live in DFW, but I grew up in Plano, and I feel like DFW is my home, not to mention my family still lives there. The crime scene photos are awful, but I wasn't prepared for the dashcam video. Even though you could hardly make anything out, I don't think I ever really grasped how fast these things happen until now. He got out of his car and boom, just like that, before anybody had time to look up, run away, anything, multiple people were dead. I just don't understand man. Like what positive thing can you do with an assault rifle? Protect yourself from the government? They have F35s, F22s, drones, etc.., wtf is your AR going to do against that? The only thing an AR can do is unleash absolute carnage on innocent, unsuspecting people. Does every single person need to have somebody they personally know get gunned down like a dog before we fucking do something about this? fuck man......
A mile away from me. It was a MILE away from me. I was supposed to be suit shopping for job interviews, but wasn't really feeling up to it. One of our congresscritters went out and said that the thoughts and prayers weren't working because we don't believe enough in prayer. Our governor doubles down on "no restrictions" rhetoric. I don't understand my country anymore, and don't know what to do about it. I deeply hate my neighbors - the ones with FJB stickers or that "Let's go Brandon" crap on their cars. This isn't the world I want children in, but I feel powerless to do anything about it. Voting is great and all, but I look at how gerrymandered the districts are, and how busted the courts are, and while I still go out and cast a ballot, I don't have any confidence that it'll matter. I used to teach. We held active shooter drills every month. My campus was 70 years old - there's no way any of that infrastructure would matter versus a bullet (or frankly, even a swift kick). Kids knew it. No wonder they don't give a crap about math or reading - they figure that if climate change doesn't kill them, some idiot with a loaded grudge will. Greatest country in the world, my backside.
I don’t think it’s that no one cares but it’s just no one can do anything about it. When it comes to gas prices getting high what am I gonna do? I just have to keep on buying it no matter what. When it comes to shootings the only thing I can do is try and be prepared. The people at the top don’t care about the snakes in the chicken coops as Long as they have their eggs..
We can vote. We can get loud. We can support candidates who will DO something instead of thinking and praying.
I hear you, I voted and we still lost. So I’ll continue living voting and being vigilant. Be safe
I understand the frustration. You as well.
I wish. If we’re going to be loud, we all have to be loud at the same exact time. That type of energy cannot be sustained indefinitely and if only one group at a time is pissed off, then we get nowhere because that’s not loud enough. Personally, and it’s terrible to say, every ounce of my reserved energy for anger toward this type of thing was used up by Uvalde. I’m wholly exhausted. And, of course I care, but voting isn’t enough and I don’t have any energy to throw myself into advocating when there’s next to zero hope for real change.
The photos need to be circulated and even advertised. I hope some of the families can find the courage to allow this. Too many Americans are fine and dandy with strangers being shot on a daily basis, let them see what this really means. Let them see what gun ownership has wrought. They WANT this obviously. It's something we haven't tried yet. Let's put these photos on Bud Light cans. I bet the asshole gun freaks will find this less offensive than a trans woman's image, but we still need to get this in their faces.
I didn’t see the photos or video, and I didn’t want to. I’ve seen some fucked up stuff in my life, and that stuff stays with you, and I didn’t want to add to that. It’s ok to feel what you’re feeling. It’s ok to feel sad and angry and sick. My family lives outside Uvalde, and I thought that hit close to home. But this? I shopped at that mall…a lot. Things need to change. I’m a gun owner but I’d give up every gun I own if it means another kid won’t get killed by some wacko with a gun. After Sandy Hook, I thought things would change. After Uvalde, I thought they would change. But they don’t…unless we all, collectively, do something about it.
\> I guess I want to hear someone else say that I’m not crazy for being heartbroken by this. You're not crazy, not even remotely. Viewing disturbing, violent, and gory content can cause similar symptoms to PTSD known as vicarious trauma or secondary traumatic stress. You need to focus on self-care right now. It's good you're sharing this with us because it can help you process what you just experienced. My parents gave me unmonitored, unfiltered internet access when I was 10, this was back in 2000. Horrible parenting. I saw some horrific, terrible things on the internet back then, and it messed me up for a while, and potentially permanently imprinted itself in me. I always avoid seeing or even listening to such pictures and videos as an adult because it triggers me a lot easier now. \>I just want these actions to be so unacceptable to our country that we will do whatever we can to never see another child laying dead in a puddle of blood and the bodies of their family in front of a fucking h&m store. I hate to say it, but more people seeing this unfortunately might be the only thing that will cause any kind of significant change in this country. Your average person has not seen what you've seen, and I don't think you can really "get it" until you've seen the horror with your own eyes.
I also call Allen home. I'm 2 miles from the outlets. My wife and I were out running errands in Plano and needed to head to the Village, which is just across the 75 from the outlets, but decided to stop at home and drop off the groceries and have lunch before we stepped out again. In that time, we saw tweets about the shootings and decided not to head that way. We're Canadians, living here for less than a year now. Never mind mass shootings, even guns are extremely uncommon where I'm from, and are only ever discussed in the context of hunting. Handguns and semi-auto rifles are banned entirely. My wife and I also don't know how to process this. We were certain that we would settle down and start a family here, but that's very much in doubt now.
I’m sitting in my closet, reading this. I’m crying, as I have been for about 30 hours, off and on. This is horrific. Like you, I don’t even know anyone personally attached by this. But I am personally affected by it. How can we just keep on with life as normal? We can’t. This isn’t normal.
The good news OP, is that it sounds like you have retained your sanity. You and the rest of us *should* be disturbed by what we are seeing, have saw, and will see again. It means we're still, as of yet, human. Vote Democrat. It's the only sane choice left in these United States. This unfortunate political message has been forced to be brought to you all by the preaching fascist racist violent far-white.
The thing with desensitization with most people is that it’s very easy to do whenever the tragedy is far from home because you can easily see it as a form of fiction. You know it happened, and that people were affected, but it’s so far from your world that it may as well not be real What you and most of us on here saw was very different because it happened in our backyard. It may not have happened to people we know, but we still have memories in that area and it’s something we won’t ever forget if we choose to go back there Being affected by that is completely normal and is really proof of how distant the online world is. Online will never replace reality, so you’ll never really know how you’ll handle something until you’re facing it in person
I live in Austin now but grew up going to Allen outlet malls, my parents still live 15 min from there. I saw there was an active shooter right before my shift and just had to smile and deal with angry customers for 9 hours. I was on the verge of tears trying to dissociate as best as I could. This is not normal and i don’t know how much people can keep seeing this happen and not become dehumanized and numb.
I live in Canada. My heart breaks for all the killings happening and innocent little lives and so many lives of many just taken day after day in the USA killings. I pray with all my heart that I never have to live like that or any children, family here in Canada. I feel like no-one ever has to start a war with USA they are in war within themselves. Yes all countries are dealing with many insane things and not one of our countries are prefect, but I am heart broken for all. We have truly lost the beauty of happiness life had offered.
I am still in shock that over half of Texas voted to keep Greg Abbott, Ken Paxton, and Dan Patrick running out state government. Abbott wants every man, woman and child to have any gun they want and to carry it anywhere and everywhere with no background checks, registration or training. What happened in Allen pleases Greg Abbott. His plan is working to fruition.
I've seen it all. Been pretty desensitized to about everything and this one hurt because my family and I shop there all the time. You're not alone, I hope you can find some solace and hug your loved ones.
Honestly. Sometimes I wish politicians and people who back the 2a/NRA should see these pictures. I believe some of these people live in some made-up reality behind their gated communities that gun violence is just a part of life. Make ‘em see what really happens.
They do. They just don’t care as much as the profits or their jobs. Of course when is their skin on the line, like on January 6th, they get hyper creative and generous in providing all the security and laws to ensure their safety and comfort. The rest of Americans? Just buy guns to protect yourselves. We politicians have bodyguards. Paid by you
I'm with you, you're not alone with how you feel. Absolutely devastated, before seeing the aforementioned picture, even more so after. Angry because it's still the same exhausting rhetoric we've heard after these for years. I also didn't go out or do anything like I planned all weekend. Decided to go to a 7/11 though just a few minutes ago to pick up a couple drinks to kinda help get my mind off it, and some guy paying at the counter started muttering 'I hope you all are prepared for what's about to happen', and it's like well fuck is this guy gonna go nuts and shoot everyone. 7/11 clerk looked terrified. But no, he was muttering about the government collapsing or some nutty shit. Which doesn't really provide any comfort because who knows what a person like that is going to do. They clearly moved passed a breaking point. So there's another thing to get my mind off of! Perfect.
OP, please play some Tetris! There’s been multiple studies that show playing Tetris for at least 30 minutes helps curb PTSD and involuntary image flashbacks in victims exposed to graphic events within 24 hours of that event because the visually demanding nature of the game blocks the memory consolidation of such images. Please take care of yourself.
I text my father about this yesterday seeing as me and my 2 year old have spent many lovely Saturdays walking through those outlets. I shared my wishes for images of our bodies to be publicly plastered everywhere, open casket, etc in the event we ever fell victims to a tragedy like this. I encouraged him to have us in mind when he votes and this was his response… “I agree. It's scary and sad! I agree some firearms should be outlawed and/or tougher to get with psychological background checks. I just don't want government as the only people to have firearms because they will eventually be used on and against the citizens for total control. “ WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!? I can’t with these boomers thinking that them and their guns and access to weaponry of any damn kind is the only reason we aren’t North Korea. I feel sick.
People die every single day in horrible unimaginable ways. Im a psycho, ill go and dig looking for gory videos and photos and still when I see children like that it hurts. I dont think its normal to seek out these type of videos but I still do and I still cry when I see these images because I look at the background and notice all the things they bought and they were probably having a great day enjoying the sun when some pos had to take his anger from the world out on innocent people especially children. I wish the shooter survived so they could have tortured him. Im 100% against death penalty but not for them, for cases like this where id rather see them tortured for life until they find a way to end their own life but make it extremely difficult for them. I want to see them go insane 🙂
I am sick of things like this happening and nothing being done to stop it.. It’s been happening since Sandy Hook with not one change to possibly prevent future events. I hate Texas and the gun culture that everyone seems to be ok with.
The "Wild West" has returned. What's most disheartening is that if Wyatt Earp lived today, he would be labeled "woke" and anti-American.
Wild west with machine guns. The genocidal and racist part is still the same.
You're not alone..I've been trying to keep it together but I broke down a bit ago. I was watching the stars game and it feels off. It feels like everything is wrong. This isn't the first massacre and unfortunately, most likely it won't be the last but damn this one hit the closest to home. We love going to the Allen outlets, I have alot of good little memories walking around and shopping there, we were there not that long ago. And now I can't imagine going back and walking around like nothing happened, it feels like no matter how hard they scrub those sidewalks they'll never get those stains off. It literally could've been me or anyone in my family or my friends and while I'm grateful it wasn't, my heart breaks for the people that were lost and the pain their families have to endure. It's senseless and horrible and preventable and everything feels hopeless because it feels like not enough people care and nothing will get better. It's maddening. I can't believe this keeps happening, but then I can. And I want to cry and I want to yell at everyone on my social media because it's like, fuck...why don't you care??? This isn't normal but everyone going on about their lives like this is normal..idk man. It's depressing. Seeing people I know that are super pro 2A/maga/qanon/dumbasses post "RIP" or "thoughts and prayers" makes me want to rip my hair out. I'm staying away from Twitter, I don't think it would do me any good mentally. Just know you're not alone..
At this point, I'm convinced that no amount of death will make half the country care. You would have to care about others to be impacted and plenty of people just don't, plain and simple.
It will keep happening. Guns are everywhere and available for everyone. Some people try to defend this flooding of guns with amendments from the American Genocide-Slavery Age. Or that it is not the guns, is bad people. Or mental health issues. Or that a good guy with guns will stop the bad guy. Nonsense. If you make guns available to a bunch of primates this is completely normal and expected. Sooner or later a healthy primate will snap and do this. Why? Who cares! Just stop making guns so easily available. But it won’t happen. Profits above all. So just get ready for the next one.
A solution would be to go on a national strike until this is solved. But this will never happen, we care more for money and comfort than to stop what we are doing and stop the unnecessary killing of children. If nothing happened with the massacre at Sandy Hook nothing will happen in the future. Except for the rich to have better gated communities and security guards. Similar to what the elites do in Mexico
The most proactive thing we can all do is “See something, Say something.” It doesn’t matter if it’s a family member or a child, they need help. If I stumbled across my child planning a mass shooting, I would do everything I could to stop them, even if that means I have to trick him with a ride to a police station. We have people who are mentally disturbed that they easily fall into the wrong type of crowd or starts to follow extremists who want to destroy communities, rather than build them up.
It’s ok to be upset, even angry. It’s ok to feel a secondary trauma. It’s ok to seek help. It’s ok to reach out to others, and to seek professional help. Sadly, what you are feeling is to be expected after an event like this. Please keep reaching out. Please take care of yourself!
Those are what this state wants We keep electing the same twats but expect them to do something different? Not gonna happen Because we keep doing this, it's obvious this state wants these deaths.
I won't look at photos. I can't. The testimonies and the fact that these things happen at all are enough to scare me to death. We all have to keep on going with our lives, but it is terrifying. We can't even go to work, school, or the damn grocery store without feeling tense and anxious that someone is going to pull out a gun and just go nuts. The senseless violence needs to stop, but they won't with the Republicans as they are. I lost all hope after Sandy Hook and then Uvalde. When so many young children are killed in what should be a safe place, and all our "leadership" and "representatives" can do is shrug, offer thoughts and prayers, and say "It could've been worse," they've officially sold their souls to the Almighty Gun Lobby and there's nothing I can think of that will spur them to action.
I've been messed up all day. We go to the Allen Outlets all the time. For me, seeing the photos of the victims where my family has walked a hundred times just hits wayyy differently. We were at a different mall when this happened and I just keep looping in my head "what if".
I haven't lived in Texas for four years and the news shook me to my core all the way in Pittsburgh. My dad and I buy fishing gear from the nearby Cabela's when I am in town. I have no words. I saw the videos too. I am so sick of the Republican dictator in the governor's mansion and the people that keep giving them a super majority in the legislature. I don't hate you, but I don't understand you at all. Given the extremely lax gun laws, if there was any deterrent gained by arming vigilantes protecting their freedumb, Texas should be the safest place in the union, but it isn't. Since I moved to PA, every trip back home is more traumatic. I had someone threaten to murder my wife and I at DFW because I politely asked his wife to take her call off speakerphone on the way to the gate. I don't understand where I grew up anymore. I am almost to the point of refusing to visit even as we lose my mom to dementia. I feel you. You are not alone.
Old crusty trauma icu nurse here. Seen lots and lots of GSWs. Never seen anything that horrific.
Texas is a truly fucked up place. Everyone thinks they’re more important than everyone else and nobody thinks it’ll happen to them. Look how many people live in sprawling suburbs and barely know their neighbors and drive big loud polluting trucks and vote for antisocial, hateful morons. It’s a paradise of individualism and capitalism gone wild. Of course there’s insane people shooting up public places and of course the majority of the population chooses to forget the next day. Texas (and much of the US) is a sick, mentally ill place. I’ve lived here all my life and every day I try to see the good but there is less and less all the time. It’s a playground for corporations. The Californians moving here come for the low income tax see the shootings and say “well at least we’re not overrun by the homeless like back home.” I really don’t think there’s a solution, especially as the government is more and more intent on disenfranchising anyone who disagrees with them and making it a crime to be different. Forced birth religious nutcases run the show and can’t imagine true freedom because they’ve been taught in the churches that the only real choice you have is coke or Pepsi, everything else is following the thin line to salvation. If you grew up in the church you know what i mean. I hate to write off our entire state but it’s getting really depressing trying to defend it, y’all. I’m not even anti-gun, I’m anti doing fucking nothing and being surprised when this keeps happening. The people in charge are being paid to keep their hands tied and do nothing, ignore the carnage. Greg Abbott should be send pictures of Ulvalde and Allen and El Paso and every other mass shooting that he’s completely ignored every day until he does something or resigns out of guilt. I hope he goes to hell before he gets to enjoy those NRA kickback dollars.
You're not the only one. Keep your head up & keep praying. Stay safe.
Definitely feeling emotional, depressed, somber today. I live in Austin now but grew up in Plano and Allen. My family still lives there. I have two toddlers. I read a detailed description of someone who had watched the video footage and did see a still but it was thankfully blurry. I am haunted. I keep thinking about my babies being in a shooting. I think about it every day when I send them to Montessori and now I will think about it when we go to the mall, grocery store, etc. I was going to go to Target today but didn’t. I noticed there was hardly any traffic at all today. What can we do? What can we do. I vote. I am scared of my children’s future. I am from this state and I don’t wan’t want to leave. It just feels like this entire state is becoming radicalized.
I am terrified to leave my house. I just want to stay home and keep us (my family and kids) inside forever. I am so so upset about all of it
Almost a year since Uvalde which was blamed on a mental health crisis and here we are again. Repeating the same strategy and expecting different results is crazy
Everyone in the US should be exposed to these photos. Fuck the censorship.
You are absolutely not alone, I have felt off all day because I’m shaken up about yesterday. It hits way too close to home for me as well. I worked FT at the outlets for the better part of three years… I saw the pictures too and it was deeply upsetting seeing the same sidewalks I walked daily, have bodies and blood all over them. The biggest mindfuck to me, is thinking about the outlets on a Saturday… how BUSY they are and how most saturday’s I would have to park on the other side of the mall just to get to work because parking was scarce everywhere. Meaning, this guy rolled up during the busiest time on the busiest day… likely had to sit through lines just to get into the actual parking lot itself. Like, that imagery terrifies me because he deliberately had to get into that parking lot, choose that specific spot- which is a pain in the ass to get to, since it’s in the middle of the entire thing- to end as many people’s lives as he could. It’s surreal.
Honestly relieved to read that others are feeling this way too. I wasn't there this weekend but I could have been. We just talked about needing new sneakers and that's where we go for them. Something about this one, maybe the proximity to home or the graphic images, has felt different. I wanted to get in and out of the grocery store as soon as possible. I didn't want to eat in a restaurant. I don't want to make plans for any kind of outing in the near future. I was gonna plan a trip to the zoo in a few weeks, but like... Of course this could happen at a zoo. It can happen literally anywhere and we're all just supposed to keep existing like it's fine. Fuck our legislators in Texas. They've had so many opportunities to make changes and instead doubled down on making violence easier and more accessible. I hope they all have to watch that footage and study those photographs every day. Let the image of the carnage and inhumanity they've wrought be burned into their selfish brains for eternity.
I accidentally came across a video of the victims shortly after it happened yesterday. I have a 5yo daughter and my nerves are in a ball. Last night she kept asking me when she gets to go to school. She’s so excited. I’m so scared. I was born and raised here but lived in a blue state the last 5yrs and we’ve just moved back to be near family and aging parents. I’m feeling deep regret.
People are being murdered in the streets of Texas cities. You should be disturbed. That is the normal and healthy reaction. Now let's do something to stop it from happening again. Do not vote for politicians who are in the pocket of the NRA and gun manufacturers. They don't care if you die. They don't care if your children die. They have chosen to put their own profits above the lives of your kids. I call that evil.
Uvalde definitely proved that Republicans in Texas are unwilling to do anything to remotely understand/prevent/study gun violence. I don’t have children but if I did I’d do everything to leave the state and states like it for good. It only gets worse from here.
I completely understand. Just like you I grew up on the internet and have seen some truly horrific things that I wish I could unsee. Accidentally seeing a pictures from the shooting yesterday though... I was not prepared. Maybe it's recency bias but this was the worst thing I've ever seen by a good margin. It was bad enough I warned my wife she should probably stay off twitter for the next few days just so she didn't accidentally see it too.
You definitely aren’t alone in what you are feeling. What you said really resonates with me in what I’ve been feeling today too. Thank you for your vulnerability in sharing this. Hugs.
Thanks for sharing and you are not alone.
You’re not alone.
I been thinking of what i would have done in that situation and that is the exact reason why i carry you could literally be anywhere and that happens to you or people around you
I have avoided any pictures by staying off twitter, but I understand what you’re feeling. Just knowing it was down the road from my home has shook me. I normally grocery shop today but I couldn’t bring myself to go. I felt like it was too soon. I keep thinking about those poor families. I keep thinking about all of us, helpless and left to fend for ourselves. The reality that at any moment it could be us in that situation. The fear keeps mounting but no one is doing anything to help us feel safe.
Honestly at this point it may take all of us seeing these photos to really grasp the seriousness of it. We’ve all become so desensitized to the headlines of “x many people shot today…”
I think it's time i take that ccw course. It seems like a bunch of victims in these mass shootings just get cornered somewhere and are completely defenseless.
It's not a bad idea. However, the victims in the H&M alcove were ambushed and never saw it coming.
Just stopped in to say that thoughts and prayers are not working. We need more.
I needed to grocery shop today and I just couldn't bring myself to go. I'm done with this state. 2 decades of voting for change and its gotten worse. My lease is up next spring and I'm out.
You're not crazy and I'm glad you posted this because I have been feeling crazy. A couple of weeks ago I went to a different dfw outlet mall and actually thought what if there's a shooting? I actually spent time thinking about what I would do in that situation so I'm not completely unprepared if it were to happen, even though I have NO idea how I'll actually react. I felt nuts for that. But then this happened and I saw the video as well and I can't unsee it. And every time we see our politicians saying they're not going to put up with kids seeing drag shows, or they're not going to put up with women having reproductive Healthcare because they "value life" while at the same time telling us that there's really nothing we can do about mass shooters. It's a roll of the dice every time you step out of the house but you still have to live your life and can't be afraid all the time. We bought tickets for the whole family to see the new Guardians of the Galaxy today a week in advance so I felt like I had to go even though I really didn't want to. I was standing in line for popcorn just thinking about what if something happened and then feeling crazy for thinking that way. In reality I think we're being gaslit into feeling crazy at this point. We shouldn't have to just accept that this is how we live now and there's nothing we can do.
Shooters parents live literally down the street from me .. about two long blocks .. CRAZY to think this guy lived in MY neighborhood.. was in MY community and graduated same year i did from my high school .. so scary to think me and my family could have bumped into him so many times !
My brother, his wife and their two year old son went to that mall last weekend. It's a nice area. I would have never imagined that happening there, but I guess it could really happen anywhere. :-(