First and foremost, I (of course) want to send my condolences to the families that lost people in the shooting. I also want to send my condolences to the people who had to (and have to) deal with the trauma of living through something like that. Having been shot at a few times in my life, I know the feeling of....I guess the best way to describe it that loss of safety one feels doing mundane things. Where you can't even feel safe getting groceries or doing laundry or taking a walk in the park after dinner or whatever simple, day-to-day thing you would normally do without fear of being gunned down. It can take years to recover from something like that even if you didn't get shot. It's a lot to live with. Eventually you get back to being able to do those mundane things, but (to one degree or another) that feeling of hyper-vigilance will always remain. You learn to live with it, but... no one should have to "learn to live with it" when it comes to that kind of trauma brought about by a senseless act of violence. It's not a rite of passage. It's just senseless.
Having lived in Bend for a few years, this one definitely strikes a little closer to home for me than some of the other mass shootings. Bend is a pretty low-key, peaceful place, surrounded by a lot of natural beauty. It's not the type of place you expect something like this to happen (though the fact that we might expect stuff like this to happen ANYWHERE is disturbing).
I'm not going to turn this into a "pro-gun control" screed or anything. I just hope that everyone who was affected by this can find some peace and healing over time with the proper help. As a former Bend resident who still likes to spend a little time in town before or after a trip into the Wilderness, I just hope for the best for my old home and for the people who live there.
I do want to add, with no intention of offending anyone or disrespecting those affected by any of the mass shootings, that there's one thing I hope can be taken away from all of these mass shootings: they CAN (and do) happen anywhere. Be it an idyllic, quiet town like Bend, or a desolate and neglected urban neighbourhood in Chicago...it happens anywhere and everywhere. And in all cases and places it's one or two people ruining the lives of thousands of their peaceful neighbours. I hope, at the very least, these shootings help people see that this kind of violence isn't confined to certain places, nor is it only perpetrated by certain races. It's not just confined to "badges and bandanas" either (i.e.; cops and gangs aren't the only ones doing the shooting and killing) This can happen to, and can be perpetrated by, anyone, anywhere. I hope that becomes a unifying moment in history. Where we say "the problem isn't with racial/ethno/religious/etc. group X living in place Y, the problems are things like poverty and alienation and a collective cultural system of morals and responsibility that needs a significant overhaul". There are certain things that are universal. I believe the Founding Fathers called them "inalienable rights". We need to make a system where these universal promises are extended to everyone, not just some. Too many of us are still stuck in the mindset of "universal means everyone....except them over there", or "inclusion includes everyone....except them over there". As an atheist, I may not like religion....but I accept and respect the fact that adherents of religion find happiness and a sense of freedom within their religion. I expect the same from them. A drum I beat a lot is the "America is insanely diverse" drum. We need to accept and embrace that, and we should start by teaming up to tackle these problems we all face: violence, mental health crises, poverty, lack of universal quality education...and a general lack of universal everything.
I just feel that we're at a very specific juncture in American history. You could say it's the make-or-break point of the American experiment. Is "e pluribus unum" really appropriate for America? Can the many come together as one? Or are we just a fractured mess? Do we need to change the motto to "e pluribus chaoticum et mortum" ("from many, chaos and death"? I dunno...I don't do Latin). I just feel like we're at a critical point where we can chose to build America back stronger and more unified than ever, or we can watch it crumble to dust.
Again, I don't want to trivialize what happened in Bend. But this is another tragedy amongst many, and I think it is possible to respect an individual tragedy without losing sight of it's place in a larger, continuing tragedy.