On Sunday, November 5, a gunman shot 26 people who were killed at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. The shooter then fled the scene and was found dead after running his car off the road with a self inflicted gun wound to head.

The church shooting was the deadliest mass shooting by an individual in Texas, one of the deadliest in the United States, as well as the deadliest shooting in an American place of worship in modern history.

Almost a month prior to this horrible occurrence, was the Las Vegas shooting, which occurred during the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival. The shooting left 58 people dead and 546 injured. The Las Vegas shooting was the deadliest mass shooting committed in the United States by a single person.

Both of these attacks reignited the fear within Americans of being apart of a mass shooting attack, students at American International College were asked about how they feel about these attacks and how it affects their safety.

Some said they never thought about the possibility of being in a mass shooting, while others shared their escape routes or their tactics.

Emilee Giacondino, a freshman at AIC, described her feelings toward the possibility of being in an attack.“It definitely makes me nervous being in big crowds, you never know what can happen now a days and anyone can easily be in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Giacondino stated.

Brianna O’Brien, also a freshman at AIC, stated, “I never thought much about mass shootings until they started happening so frequently, two shootings almost in the same month is definitely scary, and makes you on high alert almost at all times.”

The recent occurrences have caused an anxiety among all Americans, not just college students. These fears have also brought up the topic of gun control laws.

The Texas shooting revealed how gun control laws have failed in our country. Devin Kelley, the perpetrator, had a history of domestic violence and mental illness. This alone should have prevented Kelly from purchasing a firearm in the first place. The federal database failed to flag Devin Kelley for his domestic violence charges.

A year before this incident, a judge had declared Devin Kelley a danger because of mental illness. But that information never made it into the federal database that checks the backgrounds of gun buyers. If the system acted correctly, the mass shooting could have been avoided completely, since it would have prevented Kelley from purchasing a firearm to begin with.

When asked how she felt about the gun laws, Devin Coulter, a freshman at AIC stated, “It’s scary to think that anyone can go into a store and buy a gun. You have no clue what they are thinking of using it for in their heads, but they are able to obtain one so easily.”

The gun control law should be looked over after these mass shootings because they say a lot of what people have the ability to do when in possession of gun. Many people argue that it is not the gun’s that cause the problem, it is the people who are in possession of the guns.

The Second Amendment states, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

The Texas shooting showed the flaws in the gun system, while the Las Vegas shooting showed the measures one can go while in possession of a gun. Even though the second amendment states we have the right to bear arms, we should still be taking precautions to keep weapons out of the wrong hands.