On Wednesday, November 7th, a gunman opened fire at the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks, California. The shooter was identified as 28-year-old Ian Long. Ian Long was a former marine and was found dead on scene after what is believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. 12 people were killed in this tragedy,

At 11 p.m., Long walked into the bar with his .45 caliber handgun. He first shot several of the employees, then moved to the patrons who were line dancing on the dance floor. Nobody is quite sure why Long did this, although investigators did find out that he had to be checked for PTSD and had that his mother felt fearful of what he might do next.

The victims of this terrible incident were Ron Helus, Noel Sparks, Dan Marinque, Justin Meek, Cody Coffman, Alaina Housley, Telemachus Orfanos, Sean Adler, Marky Meza Jr., and another three that have not yet been identified.

Thousand Oaks, California is known for being a very safe community. This city was named the third safest city in America this year by the website Niche. It has about 130,000 residents and is a pretty upscale community. Many residents have said that absolutely nothing as ever happened–that this community barely ever makes the news. Sadly, this image has been destroyed.

This tragedy is very upsetting, and hopefully there will be no more in the future. As Lakewood resident, Sean Miller, says “I feel like it is a failure of the whole country addressing mental health issues and its shows the need for strict gun laws.”