Mass shootings from Newtown to San Bernardino are weighing ever more heavily on Americans, with signs of post-traumatic stress spreading far beyond the circle of survivors and loved ones, experts say.
Gun violence kills about 30,000 Americans every year and mass shootings—rare in most countries—have been on the rise in the United States.
According to tracking website gunviolencearchive.org, there were 330 mass shootings in the United States last year, up from 281 in 2014. They affected nearly every part of the country, reaching into both big cities and small towns.
When you add up the dead, the wounded, emergency personnel, relatives and other loved ones close and far, these massacres have “an impact on all of us,” said Merritt Schreiber, a psychology professor at the University of California, Irvine.