Kindra Neely's debut graphic memoir for young adults, Numb to This, documents her experiences as a survivor of the mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in October of 2015. This was Oregon's deadliest mass shooting, resulting in 10 fatalities (including the gunman) and seven further casualties.

The incident is part of a larger pattern of gun violence in the state. Between 2014 and August of 2022, Oregon experienced a total of 22 mass shootings. Considering that 14 of those occurred since December of 2020, the rate of mass shootings seems to be accelerating in recent years. There is no single easy explanation for why this is, but the state (in line with several others) has seen a dramatic spike in gun sales since the outbreak of COVID-19. Firearm background checks are up by as much as 45% from 2019 to 2020, but the total numbers are harder to track due to the Charleston Loophole, which allows dealers to finish a sale without a completed background check on a buyer if the ...