Hundreds of residents and tourists crowded the base of the stage at a concert by The Eagles of Death Metal on November 14, 2015. The Bataclan theatre was jumping with intense music and voices screaming the lyrics. Suddenly, explosions and gunfire cracked the air. Bullets whizzed through the air, sometimes making contact with their targets. People barreled toward the door and flooded the streets. Many people found themselves face to face with a black mask and an AK-47.

The whole world gasped with both fear and anger. Social media exploded with cries of grief and calls for revenge. Americans reacted in anger and disbelief, looking to point fingers at the next person. Terror had struck France.

“It’s truly a tragedy,” says EHS senior Petra Van Court. “I think that it kind of brings a lot of people closer together, which is important, but it really sucks that it takes something like that to have think about the issues that are happening in the world.”

The world grieved and offered sympathy. In Pakistan, Muslims gathered together in prayer. Flowers were placed on the French embassy steps in Tokyo. Hundreds crowded a vigil in Lithuania. The Sydney Opera House was lit up with the flag of France. Moments of silence occurred at sports events across the U.S. the list goes on, and on, and on.

“The terrorist attacks that happened in Paris were devastating,” said EHS senior Maddie Rieber. The attacks were the deadliest in France since World War II.

Paris has witnessed a slew of violence in the past year, including the attack on the world famous magazine Charlie Hebdo. The magazine was attacked on January 7, 2015 and 12 people died. The terrorist claimed to be a part of Al Qaeda. Both Al Qaeda and ISIS have claimed responsibility for the most recent attacks on Paris.

France has seen a very large drop in tourism lately. French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron said Paris hotels saw a 15% to 20% drop in the number of guests, restaurants attendance dropped 10%. According to ForwardKeys, a travel data collecting agency, there was a 21% cancellation rate on flights and a 27% drop in bookings.

“I’m not scared of traveling because of possible terrorist attacks because I know that the U.S. has good security,” said Van Court.

The reality of fear across the world and the natural paranoia that comes with a terrorist act can have detrimental effect on not only the country that suffers from the event, but also around the world. Right now, Paris has a lot riding on the line. According to CNN, tourism is France’s number one industry and it provides half a million jobs. The devastation, both physical and mental, is not a wound Paris can fix with a Band-Aid. The only remedy is time.

“I feel like it’s a very real possibility that terrorist attacks can happen in the United States, but I feel like it’s just even more of a reason to do something about this,” said Rieber. Terrorism is becoming a bigger blip on our country’s radar and the talk about what to do about ISIS builds. The citizens of the U.S. are torn about what to do. Some think that the government should just go and get rid of the problem. Others believe it’s not that simple.

According to National Counter Terrorism Center 2011 data, the chance of a U.S. citizen dying in a terror related incident is one in 20 million. While this number may see too high of odds to worry about, it is causing countries to scramble for the answer to terrorism. This number is even bigger in countries in the eastern hemisphere.

When one of these horrific events occur, the world seems to enter a state of peace that is not normally achievable in everyday life. These events can draw neighboring people and states together or pull them apart.

“Terrorism has once again shown it is prepared deliberately to stop at nothing in creating human victims. An end must be put to this. As never before, it is vital to unite forces of the entire world community against terror.”- Vladimir Putin