This false alarm over an 'active shooter' in Times Square shows how scary America is for some people

The Walmart gun attack in El Paso on 3 August was the 250th mass shooting in America this year.

Hours later in Dayton, Ohio, 10 people were killed and 26 injured within 30 seconds. And after just three days, the year's total had risen to 267 mass shootings (defined as involving four or more victims).

That evening, dozens of pedestrians in New York’s Times Square feared they were caught in the midst of number 268, as noises akin to gunshots rang out across the iconic junction.

The panic-inducing sounds responsible were merely that of motorbikes backfiring, but understandably chaos ensued and several pedestrians were injured in the resulting stampede of people fearing for their lives.

Many felt the footage was "a sad indictment" of modern America.

Some criticised America's Second Amendment and the legality of owning arms.

In light of the apparent rise in white supremacist terror - a category the El Paso perpetrator is suspected to fall under - US lawmakers are starting to accuse Donald Trump of emboldening, encouraging and cynically feeding from the hate that informs such views with his use of increasingly racist language.

As a result, some felt the US president had contributed to such an atmosphere in Times Square.

Some felt that the video simply showed a natural reaction to mass panic in such a location.

However, this boy's trip to Disneyland suggests otherwise.

More: Four of the most deadly shootings in US history have happened since Trump became president​