Surviving day by day

Therapy, family, and friends help Becca Laws cope with Vegas shooting trauma.

Story:

Becca Laws remembers a white purse on the ground with lip gloss and a wallet spilling out. Nearby, a wheelchair with an oxygen tank on the back was empty. Shoes slipped from the feet of panicked eld. One boot was left behind. These small snapshots are just as indelible for Becca as the big picture of a horrific Sunday night in Las Vegas: The smell rst-aid tent that looked like a MASH unit.

Becca, of Weirsdale, and friend Shelley Mallory, of Belleview, were enjoying a country music festival Oct. 1, 2017, when a re on a crowd of 22,000 people. Shooter Stephen Paddock killed 58 people and wounded more than 400 others before killing himself,

It’s the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, and six nds it unbelievable that she was

“When it started, I was laying there going, ‘This isn’t happening. This isn’t real,’” she says. “It was a war zone. I literally

For 10 minutes, Becca and Shelley zigzagged across eld—the “kill box,” as some called it—hitting the re and running in

“There were people hysterical on the ground, crying, (they) couldn’t move…paralyzed, hyperventilating, freaking out. I

Eventually, they reached a parking lot and found an off-duty cer who drove them through the chaotic streets of the Vegas Strip to the police department. Adrenaline and fear kept them cult for Becca, who has two teenage daughters, Katelynn and Liv, and works part time in The Villages. The family lives on land where people shooting target practice is common, and Becca is a gun owner who has shot her whole life. But one day the sound of rapid-fi gunshots from a nearby property made her instinctively jump out of bed and get down on the floor. rst time she went out by herself at night, and she looks at people more warily. Other mass shootings, like the one in February at the Parkland high school,

Through therapy and talking about the shooting, both she and Shelley are feeling better each day, Becca says. She’s found

“Therapy helps everybody, I think,” Becca says. “It really makes a difference. I think talking about it when you’re

Far from blocking out the trauma, Becca watched everything nd about the Vegas shooting, even searching for the shooter’s death photos so she could see for herself

“If I would’ve had the chance to kill him myself, I would have,”

The shooting hasn’t changed her views on gun laws.

“People are going to get guns illegally no matter what,” Becca says. “Why take rights away from people that do the proper steps and have background checks to protect themselves? Nothing could’ve changed this situation. He was a sick man and he was going to do what he intended to do. I think maybe they should look into helping people with mental health problems.”

But the shooting has changed her view of the world around her.

“I’m thankful I get to see my kids grow up,” Becca says. “It does change the way you feel. You appreciate little things. You appreciate being able to go to your kids’ track meets, going to see their dance performances. You might not have been able to do that anymore.”

However, the music fan and avid concert-goer has not attended any big events since Vegas.

“I say that often to my husband: ‘I hope I get to the point where I can go to another concert,’” Becca says. “That’s a