After the Gunfire: The Trauma We Rarely Talk About

Why trauma extends far beyond the headlines.

By Dak Kopec

Trauma brings about many unseen storms within a person mind.

In my first two books, Broken Boys Beyond Friendships and Logan’s Legacy Beyond Blood, I included scenes depicting mass public shootings and other forms of group-inflicted violence. While writing these moments, I realized just how normalized these scenarios have become in our modern world. What once shocked now feels disturbingly routine. Hate-related violence and gun violence appear so often in the news that many of us barely pause to consider what these events mean for mental health, personal safety, and long-term trauma.

This awareness returned last week with reports of two separate mass shootings: one in Sydney, Australia, targeting the Jewish community, and another on the Brown University campus in Rhode Island. Our immediate reaction is often: how could this happen? That question quickly gives way to grief for the victims and families, along with a growing unease that such events are no longer rare.

Media coverage tends to reduce mass shootings to numbers: How many were killed? How many were injured? Rarely do we hear what “injured” actually means. An injury might be minor, like a scrape or bruise. It might also be life-altering, such as a bullet severing a spinal cord or causing a traumatic brain injury. These injuries carry lasting physical consequences, but also emotional ones—for the survivor and their loved ones. Survivors of severe injuries often experience trauma in layers: pain, fear, grief, and the challenge of adapting to a new reality.

Psychological trauma doesn’t follow the same logic as physical injury. Someone with a minor scrape may experience overwhelming emotional distress, while someone with severe physical injuries may cope comparatively well. Those who appear unharmed may still carry deep emotional scars, including PTSD symptoms.

What Is Trauma After Mass Shootings?

Trauma is shaped by past experiences, personality, social support, and access to mental health resources. This is why trauma after gun violence cannot be measured by outcomes alone.

Trauma is often discussed as primary or secondary and categorized as mild, moderate, or severe. Primary trauma involves direct exposure to violence. Imagine a student or professor walking across campus when gunshots erupt nearby. Even without physical injury, the fear, confusion, and uncertainty can leave lasting psychological effects. Survivors may replay the event, feel persistently on edge, or avoid locations associated with the shooting. When injuries occur, trauma may be compounded by medical treatment, rehabilitation, and fear about the future.

Secondary trauma, or vicarious trauma, affects those indirectly exposed: family members, friends, first responders, journalists, and community members with shared identities. A parent watching news footage of a school shooting may experience racing thoughts, anxiety, or disrupted sleep. First responders and journalists often face cumulative trauma from repeated exposure.

Complex trauma differs from single-incident trauma. It refers to repeated or prolonged exposure to threatening situations where a person feels powerless. Over time, complex trauma can affect emotional regulation, identity, relationships, and worldview. All complex trauma is primary trauma, but not all primary trauma is complex. What makes trauma complex is repetition and duration, not intensity alone.

Mild, Moderate, and Severe Trauma

• Mild trauma involves short-term anxiety, heightened alertness, or difficulty sleeping that gradually resolves. Someone who hears about a local shooting may feel uneasy attending public events for a few weeks but eventually return to normal routines.

• Moderate trauma lasts longer and begins to interfere with daily life. A student or teacher witnessing a campus shooting may avoid certain areas, feel anxious in classrooms, or struggle with concentration for months. Moderate trauma can evolve into complex trauma if further incidents occur.

• Severe trauma disrupts daily functioning. Symptoms may include PTSD, panic attacks, emotional numbness, and withdrawal from social life. Survivors may avoid public spaces or feel unable to return to work or school. Indirectly affected family members may also experience debilitating anxiety.

  
  

Repeated exposure can link fear and anxiety to specific environments or identities, contributing to cumulative trauma. For marginalized communities, the threat often feels ongoing rather than isolated.

The Role of History

Historical trauma shapes how contemporary events are experienced. For many Jewish people, learning about the Holocaust can create secondary or intergenerational trauma. Repeated exposure through education, family histories, and cultural memory can evoke fear, grief, and heightened vulnerability.

Similar patterns appear in LGBTQ and African communities. Gay men, Roma, and other marginalized groups faced continued persecution even after World War II, and descendants of enslaved African communities face ongoing discrimination. Contemporary acts of targeted mass violence, such as shootings at Black churches, synagogues, or LGBTQ spaces, reinforce the sense of ongoing threat. Trauma shifts from something remembered into something continually reactivated, sometimes evolving into complex trauma marked by hypervigilance and chronic fear.

Beyond the Event

Understanding the shootings at Brown University and Bondi Beach requires looking beyond the immediate incident. In my books, the subtitles always include the word beyond because the mind does not operate on simple cause and effect. History, identity, personality, and collective memory layer onto individual acts of violence, transforming them into widespread psychological harm. Recognizing this dynamic is essential for responding with trauma-informed care, meaningful support, and thoughtful consideration of the spaces we occupy.

Dak Kopec is an architectural psychologist and professor at UNLV. He is also the author of several books, including three novels spanning three generations. These books include Broken Boys Beyond Friendships, Logan’s Legacy Beyond Blood, and Possessing Parker Beyond Truth.