Survivors of California shooting were also at Las Vegas massacre

Scene of Wednesday's attack was gathering place for dozens who were at the Route 91 Harvest Festival a year ago

Dani Merrill, left, who survived both the Las Vegas concert shooting and the Thousand Oaks bar shooting conducts an interview during a vigil. AP Photo

Friends pay tribute to Ventura Country sheriff Sgt Ron Helus who was killed in a shooting at Borderline Bar in Thousand Oaks, California. AFP

People comfort each other after a candlelight vigil for the victims of the mass shooting. AP Photo

A woman places a candle in the grass next to a US flag during a vigil to pay tribute to the victims of the shooting. AFP

Pictures of Noel Sparks are seen during a candlelight vigil. AP Photo

Jordan Hopkins places his hand on the photo of Sean Adler during a vigil at the Rivalry Roasters coffee shop. AP Photo

People gather outside the Rivalry Roasters for a vigil for Adler. AP Photo

People hold candles during a vigil to pay tribute to the victims. AFP

People hug and cry during a vigil to pay tribute to the victims. AFP

People comfort each other after a candlelight vigil for the victims of the mass shooting. AP Photo

Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean, front, speaks during a candlelight vigil. AP Photo

The Borderline Bar and Grill in California had become a safe haven for dozens of survivors of last year's massacre at a Las Vegas country music festival, a place where they gathered for line dancing and drinks. They found themselves in a terrifyingly familiar scene on Wednesday night, when bullets began flying once again.

"I already didn't wish it on anybody to begin with for the first time," said Brendan Kelly, a 22-year-old Marine. "The second time around doesn't get any easier."

Mr Kelly, a resident of Thousand Oaks where the shooting took place, said he heard "pop, pop" and instantly knew it was gunfire.

"The chills go up your spine. You don't think it's real — again."

Telemachus "Tel" Orfanos, 27, survived Vegas only to die inside the Borderline, less than 10 minutes from his home in suburban Los Angeles, his mother said.

"Here are my words: I want gun control," said Susan Schmidt-Orfanos, her voice shaking with grief and rage. "I don't want prayers. I don't want thoughts."

She said she wanted Congress "to pass gun control so no one else has a child that doesn't come home".

During Wednesday's shooting, Mr Kelly said he threw two of his friends to the floor and covered them with his body. Then he got a look at the gunman and the terror unfolding and decided they needed to escape.

He said he dragged one woman out through a back emergency exit and then, using his belt, T-shirt and Marine training, applied a tourniquet to his friend's bleeding arm.

After the shooting was over, Mr Kelly said he and another Marine friend helped victims alongside first responders. Two of his friends were among the 12 people killed by the gunman, identified as a 28-year-old Marines veteran, David Ian Long.

Chandler Gunn, 23, told The Los Angeles Times that a friend who survived the Vegas shooting worked at the bar. When Mr Gunn learned about the shooting, he rushed to Borderline.

Mr Gunn said his friend, whose name he did not provide, escaped safely out the back.

"There's people that live a whole lifetime without seeing this, and then there's people that have seen it twice," he said.

In social media posts, Molly Mauer said she was at Borderline and also survived Vegas.

"I can't believe I'm saying this again. I'm alive and home safe," she wrote on Facebook.

In Las Vegas and Thousand Oaks, country music fans were the victims. Borderline features country music, and Wednesday was a "college night" that drew many young people to the bar. The Last Vegas shooter targeted a crowd of country music fans gathered for the Route 91 Harvest Festival.

Mr Kelly has a large tattoo on his left arm memorialising the Las Vegas shooting, which killed 58 people. On his other arm on Thursday, he still had his wristband from the California bar.

When the Las Vegas gunman opened fire from a 32nd-floor hotel room, Mr Kelly said he threw a friend to the ground before helping get her out of the area and into a room. Armed with a knife in case an attacker came in, he waited with 40 other people for four hours.

He said living through Vegas changed his life. He does not know how a second mass shooting will affect him.

"Everywhere I go, everything I do is affected," he said. "I don't sit in a room with my back to the door. You're always picking up on social cues. You're always overanalysing people, trying to figure out if something were to go down, 'What would I do?'"

Mr Kelly said Borderline had become a safe haven for dozens of Vegas survivors: "It is our home."

A few weeks after the Vegas shooting, the bar held a benefit concert for five people from the area who were killed, and now-eerie social media posts show a number of survivors holding up a "Route 91" sign inside the bar at a six-month anniversary event.

Mr Kelly said he would be looking to God for comfort in the coming weeks and months.

"I know that, being a religious person, that God is never going to give me anything more than I can handle," he said. "I'm here for a reason."