On Sunday, November 5th, Texas faced yet another tragedy this year. During a church congregation, a shooter walked in and shot randomly, killing 26 people and injuring 20. The tragic event took place at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs.

Sources say that the shooter, Devin Patrick Kelley, had sent threatening texts to his mother-in-law who attended the church. The shooting left almost everyone who attended the church that day injured in some way. Kelley was shot once by a resident while leaving the church and then decided to shoot himself, thinking he wouldn’t be able to make it. He died, but sources aren’t entirely sure by which of the wounds. The Governor of Texas claimed that this event was the state’s largest mass shooting in Texas’ state history.

When a shooting takes place in the United States, everyone grieves for the victims, no matter how far away. The way we, as a community, respond to tragedies like so, is important to showing our character. If we stand together, we can become stronger than the people who try to knock us down. A student at AHS, Megan Rathert (‘21), expresses her concern for the country and Texas after she heard of this tragedy. “I think [shootings] make us lose our sense of safety [in our community],” said Rathert.

Showing love to places that have experienced a devastating event like Texas did is crucial to help the families of those who were affected. Being a very small community that’s thousands of miles away doesn’t really give us the opportunity to directly help Sutherland Springs, but all that we need to do is stay respectful, caring, and be as prepared as we can in case this type of event happens in our community. “We [should] have self defense classes and even classes that educate us in how to properly handle firearms so more people aren’t scared of guns,” suggests Rathert.

You never know when tragedy will strike. Unfortunately for this Texas town, it was unexpected and took many people’s lives. Stand together as a community when things like this happen, and you will all grow together. “[These types of tragedies] make us want to grow stronger as a community to make sure it doesn’t happen to us,” said Rathert.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/06/us/texas-church-shooting/index.html