Hours after the Texas mall shooting, police evacuated another mall just miles away in a panicked false alarm

• A mass shooting at Allen Premium Outlets near Dallas killed 9, including the gunman, on Saturday.
• Hours later, police evacuated a second mall just miles away after reports of gunfire caused panic.

There have been nearly 200 mass shootings in the United States since the beginning of the year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

That's making for an anxious American public.

Just hours after the Saturday mass shooting at a mall called Allen Premium Outlets near Dallas, Texas — which killed nine people, including the gunman — officials responding to reports of gunfire evacuated another mall just miles away. Police said a group of teens started running and screaming, sparking a panic.

It turned out to be a false alarm.

Many Americans say they now live with the worry that a shooting could happen at any time, according to a recent national poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation. More than a third of Americans, it found, now avoid large crowds — like music festivals, bars, and clubs — to protect themselves from mass shootings.

"These experiences have led to real worry among American families and also have changed how we act in the world," Ashley Kirzinger, Kaiser's director of survey methodology, told NPR.

More than 80% of respondents said they had taken at least one precaution to avoid gun violence.