Two shootings, one survivor: a Brown student turns trauma into gun-safety advocacy

A Brown University student who survived the 2019 Saugus High School shooting recounts a second mass shooting on a college campus and says the trauma has driven her to advocate for stronger gun laws. Mia Tretta, who chairs Brown’s Students Demand Action, says the experiences shaped her understanding of what students endure and helped motivate her to push for public-safety reforms, including Rhode Island’s assault weapons ban enacted on June 21, 2025.

Tretta’s memories of Saugus High, where on November 14, 2019, an older student opened fire on a California campus, are vivid. She was with friends in the quad when the first shots rang out; the force knocked her to the ground. She ran to her Spanish classroom, and later learned a bullet had lodged in her stomach. She was rushed to a hospital and later airlifted; her best friend Dominic was killed beside her. The incident left the Saugus community scarred and a generation of students forced to confront the threat of gun violence on a routine school day.

Months later, Tretta found herself at Brown University in December when an active shooter incident occurred on campus. The shooting killed two students and wounded nine others as they studied, doing exactly what students are supposed to be able to do without fear. The memory of another campus quiet suddenly broken by gunfire reinforced her sense that safety cannot be assumed on any campus. Tretta has said she never imagined she would have to relive that trauma, but she has chosen to turn it into action rather than silence.

Her experiences have translated into activism. She leads Brown’s Students Demand Action chapter and has used her story to advocate for gun-safety laws and accountability for the gun industry. 'No student should ever receive an alert telling them to run, hide, and fight simply because they chose to go to class,' Tretta has said. The personal cost of gun violence, she notes, extends beyond the headlines to shattered classrooms and families.

"I chose to attend Brown in part because I believed Rhode Island was serious about gun safety," Tretta has explained. "So I was shocked to learn that, until recently, our state had no ban on assault weapons. That’s why I joined Rhode Islanders across the state earlier this year to fight for and pass an assault weapons ban."

This moment, Tretta says, demands more than thoughts and prayers. Her grief, she argues, must translate into public safety measures that protect students across the country, not just in Rhode Island. She emphasizes the need for sustained leadership and policy work to prevent a repeat of the tragedies she has endured. She has said that one of the reasons she remains committed to the work is to protect younger generations—she even references her 12-year-old brother, explaining that balancing the hope of academic success with the reality of potential danger is a burden no family should bear.

"We should not have to survive school to graduate from it," Tretta has stated, underscoring the broader point that safety and education should go hand in hand rather than be treated as separate, competing priorities. The double ordeal of Saugus and Brown has driven her to call for continued action—across states and at the national level—as lawmakers weigh how best to curb gun violence and hold the gun industry accountable.

While many communities continue to debate the pace and scope of reform, Tretta’s story is part of a broader narrative about student-led mobilization. By linking the trauma of school shootings to concrete political action, she frames safety as an essential prerequisite for learning and for the future of American higher education.