The Aftermath of the 2017 Las Vegas Mass Shooting: How Survivors and Their Loved Ones Demonstrate Worthiness of Assistance Through Crowdfunding

Introduction

Since 1982, there have been 110 mass shootings in the United States (Follman, Aronsen, & Pan, 2019). A mass shooting is an act of firearm violence that results in three or more fatalities occurring at the same time or over a relatively short period of time. More than half of all recorded mass shootings have occurred within the past 10 years. The mass shooting with the largest number of victims occurred on October 1, 2017 at a music festival in Las Vegas, NV in the United States of America. This shooting resulted in the deaths of 58 individuals with 546 individuals sustaining injuries (Office for Victims of Crime, 2018). The timeliness and severity of the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting are why we chose to focus our analysis on this specific tragedy. Drawing from Folman and colleagues (2019), this chapter defines a mass shooting as (1) a shooting incident occurring in a public place with a firearm, (2) a shooting where the motive appeared indiscriminate, and (3) a shooting where a lone shooter took the lives of at least three people (not including the shooter). We chose this definition because it encompasses key characteristics of mass shootings that the general public may use to distinguish this form of gun violence from other tragic shootings.

Mass shootings are catastrophic events that terrorize individuals, families, and communities. These acts of violence often result in both immediate and long-term devastating consequences. Research suggests that individuals and families often rely on their immediate social networks in times of great distress. Additionally, ecological systems theory stresses the importance of social connectedness across multiple contexts, such as neighbors, extended family members, colleagues, and acquaintances from community and religious organizations (Bronfenbrenner, 1974). This suggests that individuals may draw support from various contexts in the aftermath of a mass shooting. For example, Liberty (2019) recommends that parents and teachers work together to help children and adolescents cope with these traumatic events. Following a mass shooting, both parents and teachers can help youth re-establish a sense of safety and predictability at home, at school, and in the community. Additional research suggests that communities may contribute to community members’ abilities to self-organize and make sense of a crisis following a traumatic event, such as a mass shooting (Xu, 2018).

Recently, research suggests that the techno-subsystem, which includes the Internet, may be an additional context where individuals and families can find and obtain support following a catastrophic event (Johnson & Puplampu, 2008). The techno-subsystem is a subsection of the microsystem where individuals can engage with human and nonhuman sources of information. Requesting financial assistance online through the techno-subsystem has emerged as an alternative method for seeking assistance following a mass shooting. This chapter draws from literature on family resiliency, social capital, and ecological systems theory to qualitatively explore how individuals frame requests for financial assistance following the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting. This chapter will address the implications of these qualitative themes, discussing how various social contexts may intersect to provide support for individuals, families, and communities who have been traumatized by a mass shooting.