Two survivors of the Brown University tragedy also escaped other gun attacks at US schools / “How dare this country allow this?”
Mia Tretta during the inaugural Summit of Survivors of Gun Violence at ATF headquarters in Washington, April 23, 2024. Credit line: Jose Luis Magana/AP/Profimedia
The scene of the deadly attack this weekend at Brown University, one of the most prestigious American educational institutions, was familiar to two of the students, according to The Guardian.
Mia Tretta, 21, was shot in the abdomen in 2019 at a school near Los Angeles, and Zoe Weissman, 20, witnessed a gun attack in Florida in 2018.
The two female students survived Saturday's attack at Brown University, where a man dressed in black opened fire during final exams. Two people were killed and nine others were injured
“How dare this country let this happen to me twice?!” Weissman told the New York Times after the Brown attack.
Weissman was in her university dorm room when a friend called to warn her that an armed attack was taking place. The initial feeling of panic quickly turned to anger, she told NBC News. “I'm angry that I thought I wouldn't have to deal with this again and here I am eight years later.”
She was 12 years old when she witnessed a gun attack at the high school near her school in Parkland, Florida. Following the 2018 attack, 17 people died.
Mia Tretta was shot in the abdomen in 2019 when a 16-year-old opened fire at Saugus High School near Los Angeles, killing two people, including her best friend.
“People always think it's never going to happen to them,” Tretta told the New York Times. “And until I got shot in my school, I thought the same thing.”
At the time of Brown's attack, she was in her bedroom. He had originally intended to study in the Barus and Holley Engineering and Physics Building, where the attack took place, but changed his mind.
Saturday's attack brought long-standing calls for gun control back into focus in the US, where gun laws are among the most permissive in the developed world. There have been 389 mass shootings in the U.S. so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines incidents in which four or more victims have been shot. Last year, more than 500 mass shootings were reported.
Tretta and Weissman said their only comfort after the Brown attack: “statistically speaking, it's virtually impossible for this to ever happen again.”
