E-raamat: Vegas Strong: Bearing Witness 1 October 2017

"Vegas strong is a collection of personal essays that reflect upon the 1 October 2017 Route 91 Harvest Music Festival mass shooting in Las Vegas, where fifty-eight people were shot to death on site, two more later died of their injuries, and 526 victims were physically wounded, with untold numbers suffering psychologically. The book shares a broad diversity of perspectives, voices, and formats, shedding light on the scope of this tragedy, the largest mass shooting to date in American history. The collection is important, as it demonstrates to the world how one community responded to a horrific event that is becoming far too common in our nation"--

From Chapter 1: Ashley Primack “The Night that Forever Changed My Life”
 
As we searched for places to go, we were watching people getting hit by flying bullets in all directions, and the length of the breaks in between the blasts were unpredictable. We could not hide in the same spot for too long, as there was no safe area to be. We thought the shooter(s) was on the ground level with us, so we ran as fast as we could every time we had the chance. During the shooting periods, my friend pushed me down, laying on top of me, to protect me from a potential wound. We saw people screaming, crying, and searching for their loved ones that they entered the concert with. As we were running, we saw people taking off their cowboy boots, dropping their purses, and leaving the rest of their belongings. During one of the blasting periods, I was pushed down directly next to someone who was unconscious and bleeding. To this day, I have no idea who they were or if they made it to tell their story.

Mass shootings have been on the rise in the United States since the early 2000s, but until the heartbreak of the 1 October 2017 Route 91 Harvest Music Festival, the citizens of Las Vegas had never experienced the violence and tragedy of this now all-too-frequent occurrence. That day, fifty-eight people were shot to death on site, while another two victims later died of their injuries. The 1 October incident physically wounded nearly 900 concert-goers, but psychologically impacted countless untold victims.

As individual and institutional response to urgent requests for help came in both during and after the 1 October catastrophe, those who call Las Vegas home struggled to cope with pain and grief. Now, editor Roberta Sabbath draws together a collection of personal essays, oral histories, interviews, scholarly writings, and commentaries to remember those whose lives were lost, and to honor survivors and their loved ones. Written five years after the tragedy, each contribution offers a unique story of healing, demonstrating the wide-ranging experiences and repercussions of the event. The essays in this collection represent a broad diversity of voices from political leaders, health professionals, first responders, community members, and incident survivors. This work is dedicated to those who lost their lives on 1 October 2017, to survivors and their loved ones, and to the caregivers—both individual and institutional—all of whom continue to keep Vegas Strong.