Boulder: Six mass shootings have occurred within 40 miles of recent attack
The Kings Sooper shooting in Boulder, Colorado marks the sixth mass shooting to take place within 40 miles of the store.
Ten people were killed Monday after a shooter opened fire inside the grocery store. The attacker was eventually subdued after police stormed the location.
In an interview with CNN, a survivor of the shooting, Ryan Borowski, said that Boulder "feels like a bubble and that bubble burst".
"It doesn't feel like there's anywhere safe anymore, sometimes," he said.
That feeling of vulnerability may be due to the high concentration of mass shootings in that region.
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Mass shootings are generally rare events, despite the intense coverage they receive by news organisations. According to data from Mother Jones' Mass Shooting Database, the majority of gun deaths in the US – 61 per cent – are the result of suicide. Public mass shootings makes up only 0.2 per cent of gun deaths.
Even though mass shootings are just small ripple in the pool of gun violence, the seemingly random and meaningless loss of life and the potential for it to occur anywhere and at any time can be terrifying.
In 1999, the Columbine High School shooting occurred 33 miles from Boulder in Columbine. It was one of the deadliest school shootings in history. The shooters killed 12 people and left another 24 injured.
Columbine would not be the end of school violence in the region. Both the 2010 Deer Creek Middle School shooting and the 2013 Arapahoe High school shooting occurred within an hour from the grocery store. In 2019, one student was killed and eight others shot during at a STEM school in Highlands Ranch.
In 2012, the region suffered another major mass shooting incident when a gunman opened fire during a screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" in Aurora. Twelve people were killed in that shooting, and 70 were wounded.
In 2017, a gunman walked into a Walmart in Thornton – about 20 miles from Boulder – where he shot and killed three people before fleeing the scene.
According to a 2019 analysis from The Denver Post, Colorado had more mass shootings per capita than all but four states.
Washington, Vermont, New Mexico, and Washington DC all have more mass shootings per capita than Colorado, though the Denver area does have more school shootings than most major metropolitan areas.
Sen. John Hickenlooper said the scenes from the supermarket take "you right back to Aurora".
"I just feel so deeply for the people. They're worried about their loved ones, who know they have lost a loved one," Mr Hickenlooper said during a CNN interview. "These are the hardest events of all."
He recalled former President Barack Obama's visit to Auora following the 2012 shooting.
"I remember President Obama came out to Aurora and spent several hours with the families and closest friends of the deceased victims," Mr Hickenlooper said. "At the end he told me it's a part of his job, he's consoler in chief."
