ANOTHER SHOOTING Texas Democrats Demand Gun Safety Reforms Dealing with Gun Violence and Trauma

By Ayesha Hana Shaji Texas Metro News

Six-year-old William Cho is the lone survivor of his immediate family following a shooter’s rampage at the Allen Premium Outlets in Allen, Texas, over the weekend.

According to a GoFundMe post by the family’s friends, William had just celebrated his sixth birthday four days prior and what was supposed to be a joyful family outing immediately turned into a nightmare.

In addition to Cho’s father, mother and three-year-old brother; there were five other fatalities before the shooter, Mauricio Garcia, 33, was fatally shot by police. William was one of seven taken to the hospital after suffering injuries from the attack.

The shooting incident at Allen mall became the 17th mass shooting recorded in Texas, ranking the state as the second-highest in mass shootings occurring this year, behind California.

In the last 130 days, America has reported 208 mass shootings, where four or more individuals are shot or killed, excluding the shooter(s), according to Gun Violence Archive; an online database that collects and tracks data related to gun violence incidents in the United States.

Licensed Professional Counselor Ardenna Downing said the United States is a “numbed-out” nation because of the number of gun violence that is experienced.

“We are becoming numb and that's a natural response,” Downing said. “Our brains are only able to process so much before it says, ‘no, I don't want to address that. We're gonna put that to the side,’ so we become numb.”

But she said it’s important to be self-aware and process the emotions one feels – it’s the first step to healing.

“Sometimes we experience trauma and don't know that it majorly impacts an area of our life,” Downing said. “Just because a person has experienced a traumatic event doesn't mean that they're automatically going to develop symptoms.”

It is important to acknowledge that experiencing a traumatic event is not okay, Downing said failure to do so leads to people becoming desensitized to the trauma. “Despite telling ourselves that everything is okay, our bodies are unable to