On the night of Nov. 7, a gunman walked into the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks and killed 12 people.
So far this year, there have been 328 mass shootings in the United States, according to The Gun Violence Archive. The organization defines a mass shooting as a single incident in which four or more people, not including the shooter, are "shot and or killed" at "the same general time and location."
After living through the Borderline tragedy, several survivors recently got together for a barbecue in Camarillo. Since the shooting, they have started a Facebook group and lean on each other for support.
One month after the shooting, we meet many of the survivors who have forged a unique bond amidst adversity. Some of them were also survivors of the Route 91 Harvest Festival mass shooting in Las Vegas last year, where 59 people died, including the gunman.
After each mass shooting, critics on both sides of the gun debate have shared their points of view.
Collin Hymes is a film and TV stuntman and a Marine veteran, as well as a big brother of sorts to many. He survived a bullet wound to the neck in the Thousand Oaks shooting and a shattered knee from jumping out of a window to escape.
“As a Marine and understanding history, you want to be able to protect yourself from tyranny, so you want to be able to have the ability to rise up against a government to subdue its people," he said about gun ownership. "But at the same time, too many guns in the hands of wrong people cause mass shootings. So where is the happy medium, where we can protect ourselves from dictatorship and protect ourselves at home that’s really hard to say.”
The Orfanos family has been grieving the loss of their son, Telemachus "Tel" Orfanos. Tel was good friends with many of the survivors at the BBQ. His mother’s impassioned plea for gun control after the shooting went viral on social media. She later spoke to Inside the Issues host Alex Cohen, and urged the nation's leaders to restrict access to automatic weapons, semi-automatic weapons, and expanded magazines.
She went on to say she couldn't hug her son in the mortuary to say goodbye, because of the severe wounds inflicted on his body.
"No parent should have that picture in their head,” she said.
California has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, while many other neighboring states are less restrictive. The semi-automatic gun used by the Borderline shooter was purchased legally, but the expanded magazine authorities say he used is illegal here.
The shooting that night lasted nine minutes, but to the victims it lasted an eternity. While the physical injuries of these survivors are starting to heal, the mental wounds remain raw.
A Go Fund Me page has been set up to help support the victims of the Borderline shooting. You can find the link here.