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Following a mass shooting in Montgomery, local politicians and citizens have been assigning blame.

Downtown small business owners are instead focusing on fostering community and welcoming people.

Business owners feel they are stewards of the city and want to counter negative narratives.

They are committed to providing safe spaces for residents to gather and heal after the tragedy.

The impulse to assign blame has spread in the days after an Oct. 4 mass shooting that killed two and injured a dozen people in Montgomery, with politicians in news conferences and citizens weighing in on Facebook at an almost constant rate.

But people who own or work in small businesses downtown say they aren't inecessarily interested in blame — they're doubling down on inviting pe

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