Survivors

Gun violence survivors do have things in common with other groups of survivors, but they also have and face different strengths and challenges because everyone experiences trauma differently. Survivors of trauma can have a myriad of effects, they can immediately show resiliency or develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). According to NCBI, "traumatic experiences typically feel surreal and challenge the necessity and value of mundane activities of daily life" for most survivors of any for of trauma and these traumatic stress reactions are seen as normal responses to abnormal circumstances. The affects of trauma can cause anxiety, depression, hopelessness, feeling different, and more (NCBI). This shows that trauma not only affects someone mentally but emotionally, psychologically, and physically. However, survivors of gun violence are unique.

When someone experiences gun violence on more than one occasion, the trauma's impact is glorified. The professor of social work and director of the Traumatology Institute at Tulane University in New Orleans Charles Figley, PhD, says that "most often, gun violence survivors are similar to war veterans who must adapt to being exposed to danger and skilled at staying safe.” When he says this, he means that they then learn how to interpret faces, noises, and body language to scan for possible threats. Figley says that this causes the survivors to "accommodate the violence in their lives but that comes at the cost" to their medical, psychosocial, and mental health.

Psychologist Dan Mosley, EdD, an American Red Cross disaster mental health services volunteer who provides support to victim of gun violence said "simply ensuring victims are aware that support is available and accessible to them—even if they never take advantage of it—can help immensely."

Fear is a driving factor in survivors of gun violence. After the incident, they live in fear, fear that is hard to turn into resilience.

Francis (2018) reported an increase in fear and vigilance and some were so fearful that they did not want to leave their homes. Sullivan and Weiss (2017) found that women who were survivors of intimate partner violence were at a greater risk for more severe symptoms of PTSD if threatened with a firearm by their partners as well as fearing that their partners would use a firearm against them. These survivors want to avoid situations and places that may remind them of the violence, the perpetrator, and what happened to them (Julieta Macias, LCSW-C, PhD). They experience sleep disturbances, agitation, and may even react in fear toward anyone that resembles the perpetrator because they are frightened the person who did this to them wants revenge. Survivors cope by avoiding where it happened, limiting social activities, or moving from the place where it happened. Julieta Macias says that this is all “about constricting [the survivor's] experience of the world in order to manage their fears and anxieties."

Secondary trauma is also very prevalent in communities affected by gun violence, affecting people who are closest to the survivor, first responders, and health care workers who witnessed the violence or the aftermath. The executive director of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, Chad Dion Lassiter, MSW, said that “there are a lot of people walking around with undiagnosed and unacknowledged PTSD.”

Risk factors, especially for community and gang-related violence in neighborhoods, increase because gun violence is a lot of the time seen as a part of every day life. That sense of hopelessness and violence can fill a community with sadness and loss. One survivor of gun violence remembered a time she watched a boy get shot in the head and then found out later that he died. A researcher, Francis (2018) revealed that she showed "no outward emotion" and "she simply stated it as a fact of daily life [ and that] it seemed to be expected." The survivor believed that such violence was just always going to be there and that people learn to adapt.

Unique to survivors of gun violence and a disturbing effect in the cycle of gun violence is that it just leads to more violence. Jesenia Pizarro, PhD, who is an associate professor of criminology and criminal justice at Arizona State University, says that these survivors "feeling unsafe, expecting to be victimized, and doubting that police will protect them, may choose to carry firearms for protection in high-violence communities."

One study by Kalesan & Galea (2015) found that the physical healing of a gun-related injury was compromised if the person had preexisting depression. There was greater risk for in-hospital mortality and discharge to a care facility.