In the year since Brandon Tsay wrestled a firearm away from the hands of a mass gunman in the lobby of his family’s dance hall in Monterey Park, California, he’s experienced muscle spasms some nights — as if he’s trying to defend himself.
“I couldn’t sleep at night because it felt like this haunting presence was over me and I was anxious all the time,” he said.
Tsay, 27, said his anxiety has lessened since getting mental health help last year. But he says what he calls a “golden bubble” around his heavily Asian American community has burst, and the reality of gun violence has sunk in. On the first anniversary of the shooting on Jan. 21, Tsay is calling for more reforms to gun legislation.
“People are really scared,” he told NBC News. “We really see a need to restrict assault weapons, especially the abuse of power and using such weapons without proper training or licensing or knowing how to safely operate a weapon of that caliber.”
A year ago, Huu Can Tran, 72, killed 10 people and wounded nine at the now-closed Star Ballroom Dance Studio before heading to the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio, where Tsay confronted and disarmed him. Tran killed himself the next day. While law enforcement has still not identified a motive, those who knew him say that Tran was part of the ballroom community.
Tsay had been closing up the front office for the night when he heard a sound coming from the shooter’s weapon. Harrowing surveillance footage shows a violent shoving match as Tsay managed to get a hold of the weapon — described as a “semi-automatic assault pistol” — from Tran and point it at him.
Having gone through that experience, Tsay said he still feels that people have the right to protect themselves through firearms — but that there needs to be a line drawn.
“Things of that caliber, like weapons of mass destruction — which is what they are — can be highly destructive,” Tsay said. “They need to be restricted somehow. You…
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