After the tragic shooting on West Sixth Street March 1 — where four people were killed and 15 others injured — the exclusive Central Texas blood supplier We Are Blood announced that O+ and O– donations were urgently needed to treat victims.
Blood donations are critical for treating gunshot victims, along with a variety of other injuries. Anyone who experiences excessive bleeding, severe anemia, or is undergoing surgery or cancer treatment benefits from blood donations. A single donation can also potentially help multiple patients by separating the blood into four main components. Each serves a different purpose, but each is crucial to helping different medical emergencies.
“My brother was diagnosed with cancer in 2020, and without blood donations his care would have been greatly impacted,” said Abigail Norris, a biology sophomore who wants to go into medical research.
Across the U.S., around 6.8 million people each year donate blood, resulting in about 13.6 million units of whole blood. However, depending on your blood type, different types of blood donations may be more beneficial. For instance, donors with an AB blood type are encouraged to donate plasma since it is the universal plasma donor type and one donation can provide up to four units of plasma. Individuals with O+, O–, A- and B– blood types should look into a “Power Red” donation (also known as a “Double Red” donation). Power Red donations allow donors to safely donate two units of red blood cells at a single appointment, and they do this by extracting only the red blood cells and returning the other components back into you.
If you are looking into donating with We Are Blood, note that you must be at least 17 years old, weigh at least 115 lbs and be in good health — though requirements vary depending on the type of donation. Eligible donors can donate whole blood once every 8 weeks/56 days, Power Red every 16 weeks, platelets every 7 days (up to 24 times a year). Right now, We Are Blood needs around 200 donations per day to maintain supply across Central Texas, and events like car accidents or shootings can heavily impact supply.
“Serving Central Texas, we’re well aware of the growth that we’ve been seeing in our community,” said Nicholas Canedo, Vice President of Community Engagement at We Are Blood. “Along with that, we’ve also seen an extraordinary boost in the needs for our services, meaning more blood transfusions being performed today in Central Texas than ever before. … All that means that we’re needing more donations than ever before, and so that sometimes means that 200 (donations per day) is not enough.”
Donating blood can also help combat the effects of mass shootings on a community level. In a study comparing the top 10 states with the strongest gun regulation laws to the bottom 10, the latter experienced gun death rates of over 2 ½ times higher than the former. As of 2026, Texas ranks 32nd out of 50. As of 2021, Texas no longer requires a license to carry (LTC) for a handgun in most public places, a background check or purchase permit if sold by private sellers, nor does it require new handgun models to have childproof features. In lieu of these external factors, we are in an environment that necessitates more blood donations than we otherwise would need with common sense gun regulation.
While calling for blood donations after the Sixth Street shooting is pivotal to obtaining blood to help victims, the best long-term solution is to encourage people to donate year-round. This decreases the likelihood of wasted supply and helps blood centers prepare for unexpected tragedies.
While advocating for blood donations will never stop being important, we must advocate to protect and save lives in numerous ways, including by enacting common sense gun regulation.
Gray is an anthropology, government and philosophy junior from Baytown, Texas.
