More events

Hana Ali, 57, of Lititz, said the shooting took place after a fight in front of Tabarek Al-Hana, an international food store she owns along with her sister.

Ali said an argument broke out between a group of four people just outside the store around 2 p.m. or 2:30 p.m., centered around two adult men. A scuffle took place, during which one of the men brandished a gun and began making threats to the others.

The gun was knocked from the man’s hand and the second man then mounted him and shot him, Ali said.

A second man, also part of the group, was also shot, though Ali was unsure how.

“Everything went so fast,” she said. “We were scared so we were hiding behind my register.”

Kevin Young, 68, of Lancaster, was shopping upstairs when he heard shots ring out through the mall.

“There were too many to count,” he said. “It was like a lot of firecrackers going off.”

Young saw a mass of people running throughout the mall, headed toward the exits. Some people were lying on the ground.

Young was ushered into a back room where he hid for about half an hour, he said.

The unidentified bystander, who legally possessed the firearm, had heard gunshots related to a fight between two males that knew each other, police said. The bystander remained on scene until security and police arrived.

Police said the initial shooting stemmed from an altercation between two males who knew each other and at least one of them — a 16-year-old boy — had a gun.

They, and other people then struggled for the gun and the 16 year old fired at least two shots, striking at least one of the people involved.

The bystander, who had been in a store nearby, heard the shots, came over and “then engaged the subjects fighting over the gun and fired shots, striking one of the suspects.”

We don’t yet have enough information about what transpired Sunday at Park City Center to assess the actions of the bystander who intervened. But consider the following statistics. Guns rarely make us safer.

… There are more guns in circulation in the United States than there are people — more than 393 million guns, approximately 120.5 guns for every 100 people, as the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia website notes.

So perhaps it shouldn’t surprise us when a shooting occurs at a movie theater or a grocery store or a college campus or in a neighborhood or home. Guns are everywhere.

And we’re supposed to live with this fact, as if it’s normal. We’re supposed to be OK with the fact that only some mass shootings make the national news in the United States, and then only occupy our attention for a few days.