Mass shootings in America this year have been responsible for a staggering loss of life in all kinds of places. Four years ago, it was a Walmart.

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The wider toll of gun violence

A block party. A dance hall. A Sweet 16 celebration.

Mass shootings in America this year have been responsible for a staggering loss of life ([link removed]) in all kinds of places. Gun violence has touched schools, churches, outdoor festivals, and more.

Four years ago, it was a Walmart.

The PBS NewsHour spoke with two people ([link removed]) connected to the El Paso shooting, considered one of the deadliest attacks on Latinos in modern U.S. history.

This newsletter was produced by Joshua Barajas ([link removed]) .
FOUR YEARS LATER, TRAUMA FROM THE EL PASO SHOOTING LINGERS
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Watch the segment in the player above.
By Sam Lane, @lanesam ([link removed])
Producer

By Joshua Barajas, @Josh_Barrage ([link removed])
Senior Editor, Digital

Adria Gonzalez moved away from her hometown of El Paso in recent weeks. She’s glad to be gone.

She survived a mass shooting at her local Walmart four years ago. She and her mother were working through a grocery list when a white gunman opened fire on shoppers with an AK-47-style rifle, killing 23 people and wounding another 22. The victims included both U.S. and Mexican citizens, and ranged from a 15-year-old high school student to elderly residents.

It’s still painful to recall the details of the day, but Gonzalez remembers running to the front of the store and seeing the carnage. A body on the floor. Blood. People screaming. The gunman. Gonzalez noticed that some people were panicking. She guided them toward exits of a building she knew well.

“Vamanos! Vamanos! Let's go, it's this way!” she yelled. Gonzalez has been called “Wonder Woman” ([link removed]) for saving lives, but she doesn’t consider herself a hero.
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In the left photo, Gonzalez embraces her mother. On the right, Gonzalez holds her baby. Photos courtesy of Adria Gonzalez
The 2019 El Paso shooting became one of the nation’s deadliest shootings. Mass killings are statistically rare — and far more occur in private places ([link removed]) — but they represent a slice of America’s persistent gun violence epidemic. For survivors and the families and friends of victims, the trauma lingers long after the initial headlines.

“Life doesn't stop just because we were survivors of a crime incident,” said Gilberto Luis Anchondo, who everyone calls “Tito.”

Tito’s brother Andre Anchondo was killed along with his wife, Jordan, in the shooting. The couple shielded their 2-month-old baby from the gunfire. About a year and a half later, Tito’s father also died. Tito said he, his brother and father were a “three-man team” at the family’s auto body shop. Tito has since taken over the business.
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The Anchondos, from left to right: Tito, Tito’s father, and Tito’s brother Andre, who was killed in the El Paso shooting. Photos courtesy of Gilberto Luis Anchondo
“Having to balance not only a business but my mother, my sister, my nephew, and I also have a daughter, so it's just a lot of juggling,” he said. “I'm not going to lie. It does get very depressing … But at the same time, it's something that has helped me change my life, to become a little bit more responsible and mature.”

Investigators later found that the shooter posted an anti-immigrant screed online, minutes before the attack. In July, he was sentenced in federal court to 90 consecutive life sentences.

For Gonzalez, it’s not enough. It’s “still a slap in the face for us Latinos,” she said.

At one time, she did offer forgiveness. But now that time has passed, she said, “There has not been any justice yet for us or any closure of what happened that morning.”
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The names of the 23 shooting victims adorn a makeshift memorial at the Cielo Vista Mall Walmart in El Paso, Texas. Photo by Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty Images
During sentencing, some family members addressed the gunman directly.

“I was able to look that guy in his eyes and forgive him, and let him know that his actions will not affect the rest of my life,” Anchondo said. “I personally cannot live with hate in my heart and fear. And that's why I forgave him. I can't hold something like that in my heart, or it's going to kill me.”

Gonzalez, who was not at the sentencing, now lives with her wife and baby in Georgia. Hundreds of miles away from El Paso, Gonzalez said she still carries the fear of the day with her. Fear that a shooting like that could happen again.

She finds closure, little by little, each day. “What moves me is my family,” she said.

She’ll connect with her mother back in El Paso whenever there’s news about the trial or the shooting. “And just waking up and seeing my daughter's eyes and seeing that she's okay. That's what makes me happy.”

HOW YOUNG AMERICANS FEEL ABOUT GUNS

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Watch the segment in the player above.

By Matt Rasnic, @Matt_Rasnic ([link removed])
Associate Producer/Editor, Social Media

Young people think gun violence is a problem.

That’s according to a first-of-its-kind project to explore young Americans' attitudes on guns was jointly published by Everytown for Gun Safety, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and American University's Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL).

“When we think about a generation that is hypervigilant, essentially about the possibility of gun violence erupting, sort of at any moment around them, parents are scared to send their kids to school,” said Cynthia Miller-Idriss of PERIL. “Kids are scared about going to school and about other public spaces where they spend time. And that's a really sad fact to assess in their feelings about firearms and their safety.”

The project included a survey of more than 4,000 people between the ages of 14 and 30, analysis of online gun-related content and ongoing focus groups and interviews. Among the project’s major takeaways:
* 74 percent of young Americans agreed that gun violence is a problem.
* 59 percent believe gun laws should be stricter.

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Image by Megan McGrew/PBS NewsHour
* About 20 percent say they have “somewhat easy” access to a gun, while 22 percent reported they have “very easy” access.
* On average, young people know at least one person who’s been injured or killed by a gun.

Also consider: Gun deaths among kids and teens under 18 increased by 50 percent in two years, according to a Pew Research Center analysis ([link removed]) .

Researchers also found that access to guns, identification with gun culture and exposure to media relating to guns correlated with support for male supremacy and the belief that the Second Amendment gives individuals the right to overthrow the government, along with higher levels of racial resentment and post-traumatic stress disorders.

And a higher endorsement of male supremacist beliefs is “associated with more mental distress (depression, anxiety, loneliness, post-traumatic stress), support for racist ideas, support for anti-government ideas and viewing more gun-related media,” they noted.

Also consider: Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond found that among 177 mass shooters analyzed, social isolation ([link removed]) was “the most important external indicator leading up to the attacks.”

Miller-Idriss of PERIL told the NewsHour ([link removed]) that researchers found that young people are as easily persuaded by false information as older adults. Twenty-two percent of those surveyed said they agreed or strongly agreed that the Second Amendment gives individuals the right to overthrow the government. But, she said, the issue of false information can be addressed.

“When you're dealing with an issue of somebody being manipulated by content they encounter online, we can prebunk that with video content, with content that they review in advance and read,” she said.

A FINAL THOUGHT

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Watch the documentary, “Ricochet: An American Trauma,” in the player above.

2023 has reached another grim milestone.

The first half of the year is the deadliest six months of mass killings ([link removed]) recorded since at least 2006, according to a database from USA TODAY, Northeastern University and the Associated Press. A majority of these mass killings involved guns.

The NewsHour has explored how the aftermath of gun deaths affect people differently ([link removed]) and can fundamentally change the fabric of communities ([link removed]) .

Jennifer Carlson, a sociologist at University of Arizona who studies the impact of gun violence, once described the ever-widening toll of this epidemic.

“At some point in our lives, almost every single American is going to know someone who has been impacted by gun violence,” Carlson said. “This is not something that only happens when the headlines grab us. This is something that is threaded through society and that touches all of us if we're willing to hear it and willing to acknowledge it and willing to witness it.”
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