Brown Attack Survivors: Linked to Other School Shootings?

A shooting at Brown University on Saturday left two people dead and nine others wounded, prompting a large-scale police search. The attack has resonated deeply with some students, including two who previously survived school shootings.

Brown University Shooting Revives Trauma for Survivors

Mia Tretta, 21, and Zoe Weissman, 20, both students at Brown, had previously experienced the trauma of school shootings. Weissman expressed her frustration, questioning why the country continues to allow such events to happen to her repeatedly.

Hundreds of police officers spent the night searching the campus and surrounding neighborhoods for the suspect, who remains at large. The shooting occurred during final exams at the prestigious Ivy League college.

Weissman was alerted to the shooting by a friend while in her dorm room. She told NBC News that her initial panic quickly turned to anger, stating, “I’m angry that I thought I’d never have to deal with this again, and here I am eight years later.”

She had previously witnessed a shooting in 2018 at a high school adjacent to her middle school in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed.

Tretta was shot in the abdomen in 2019 during a shooting at Saugus High School near Los Angeles, which resulted in two deaths, including her best friend. She recounted to the New York Times that she once believed such an event would “never be me.”

On Saturday, Tretta was studying in her dormitory and had considered studying in the Barus and Holley engineering and physics building, where the shooting took place, but decided against it due to fatigue.

The incident has reignited the debate surrounding gun control in the United States, which has some of the most permissive gun laws in the developed world. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 389 mass shootings across the US this year. Last year, over 500 mass shootings were reported.

Both Tretta and Weissman expressed a sense of disbelief that they would have to endure another school shooting. Weissman stated, “The one thing that gave me comfort was, like, statistically, it’s practically impossible for this to ever happen to me again,” adding, “And clearly, we’re getting to a point where no one can say that any more.”