Virginia Tech survivors react to Las Vegas massacre

RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) - Dozens are dead and hundreds more injured after a mass shooting in Las Vegas. There are Americans living in Richmond, Virginia who know the horror of a day like this, unfortunately better than most. They've lived through a mass shooting and that frantic search for loved ones.

Lori Haas' daughter was shot at Virginia Tech 10 years ago. Like most of us, Lori Haas woke up Monday morning to an explosion of app alerts and texts on her phone. She turned on the news and felt that overwhelming sense of sadness and anger - but not shock and surprise.

"It is a sad, sad commentary on something that is uniquely American, and it just breaks my heart," said Haas.

Lori's daughter Emily survived a mass shooting in her classroom at Virginia Tech.

"The panic that sets in, it's just indescribable, and the fear and the emotion just overwhelming," Haas says.

She knows that frantic sense of worry and dread filling families of anyone at that Las Vegas concert.

"For them to find out their loved ones have been killed, I just can't fathom it. For those whose loved ones were in some weird way lucky enough to survive this, the journey just never ends."

She points to her dear friend Colin Goddard. He also survived the shooting at Virginia Tech in her daughter's classroom. He just recently had to have another surgery.

"Over 10 years later, he had to have surgery for bullets that are left in his body," said Haas.

For Lori, a mother turned life-long advocate for gun control, her frustrations this morning were palpable.

"What can you say when you're on repeat? We keep hitting the repeat button, and we're not learning anything from these shootings."

Lori continues to hope for change in this country. She also believes we should not give the shooter notoriety. We should be focusing and saying the names of victims and survivors, telling their stories.

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