survivors of gun violence

The Charleston 9

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Today is the 4th anniversary of yet another heinous shooting and hate crime in America. The shooting of 9 innocent people at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston was one of a now increasing number of hate shootings that reveal the racist underbelly of America. The shooter had a gun he should not have had but because of a loophole in the law which we now call the Charleston loophole, he got his gun anyway from a federally licensed firearms dealer. Had he not been able to get the gun from the dealer, he could have gone on-line or to a gun show where guns are readily available from private sellers with no required background check.

Let’s look at more from the above linked article:

Under current federal law, people who buy a gun from a licensed dealer have to go through a background check. The FBI has up to three days to complete this check. But if it doesn’t, gun dealers are allowed to sell the firearm anyway. Many sellers choose not to, but some do proceed with the sale even if a background check wasn’t completed.

ThinkProgress, which obtained data from the FBI, found the FBI in 2018 failed to complete 276,000 background checks within the three-day window. That’s around 3 percent of background checks, out of the more than 8.2 million in 2018 — which is typical, based on data going back to 2014.

The loophole allowed a self-described white supremacist to obtain the gun he used to kill nine people at a predominantly black church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015. He had admitted to drug possession prior to the gun purchase, which should have prohibited him from buying a gun — but the FBI couldn’t complete his background check in time, and the seller allowed him to buy a gun anyway.

When the Brady law passed, loopholes were a part of the bill, thanks to the NRA. Why sell a gun after 3 days if the records don’t come through? If there is not a problem with the sale, it takes about 3 minutes to be cleared by the FBI National Instant Check System but the run rights extremists want to make sure that just about anyone can get a gun. The result: (See below)

Thousands of people are dead because of our loose gun laws. Mass shootings continue and are on the uptick. So are domestic shootings, suicide by gun and “accidental” shootings. The number of careless gun owners who make deadly mistakes are also increasing. The fact that the majority of our states have loose conceal and carry laws has let that happen.

Congress had a chance to change our gun laws to make sure a White Supremacist like the shooter of the 9 victims in the church in Charleston won’t be able to get a gun. The House passed the bill. The Senate didn’t even have a hearing. Why not?

Ask Senator Mitch McConnell. 90% of Americans want stronger gun laws.

It’s time for us all to let those Republican Senators who failed the country that we are watching and will hold them accountable for their lack of action to save lives. Every day a vote is delayed 100 more Americans die from gunshot injuries.

Never mind. Campaign donations and fear of a failing NRA inform the current U.S. Senate. There is no common sense. There is really no word to describe this failure.

If they care about the victims and survivors, they will act. If not, we will see more shootings like the one that happened 4 years ago today in a small church in Charleston, South Carolina.

I met the wife of Rev. Clementa Pinckney at an event in D.C. just a year after the shooting. She is a lovely, quiet spoken woman. Here are her words almost 4 years after she and her 6 year old daughter hid in the pastor’s office during that fateful prayer meeting:

In the beginning, you’re in denial. You don’t always register when things happen. Especially as traumatic as the Charleston shooting. You just kind of think to yourself, “Did this happen to me?”

To be honest, at first, I was a little in denial that it really happened at all. I can tell you that I immediately went into mom mode to protect and be there for my two girls, which was and still is my first priority. I can remember getting home that night and seeing police cars everywhere in our yard and allowing my girls to briefly look out the window as I tried to explain to them the reality of what had happened.

So many Americans suffer from the ripple effect of gun violence. PTSD is 2 real. And we are failing to treat that adequately as well. Recently 2 Parkland school shooting survivors committed suicide by gun. Living with the trauma can be debilitating and overwhelming without good care.

We are better than this.

In memory:

Rev. Clementa Pinckney

Rev. Sharonda Singleton

Myra Thompson

Tywanza Sanders

Ethel Lee Lance

Cynthia Hurd

Rev. Daniel L. Simmons Sr.

Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor

Susie Jackson

Look at their faces. Say their names.

The true cost of shootings

commongunsense, , , , , , ,

sunriseI want to follow up my previous post with a commentary on the true cost of shootings. As we now know, 2 Kentucky high school students were killed and 18 injured by a 15 year old with a gun on Wednesday. Let me say that again- 2 killed and 18 injured by one 15 year old with a gun.

No words.

There is no logical or reasonable explanation for what happened that day. Nor is there ever an explanation that makes any common sense for why a young person with access to a gun they should not been able to access takes it to a school and shoots peers. Surely they are not thinking about the consequences of their actions. They are in the moment of whatever was in their heads to cause them to massacre other innocent human beings.

The true cost of this culture that exists almost exclusively in America, is, of course, death and devastation that affects families and friends for the remainder of their lives. The true cost is the phone calls that change lives forever.

A Kentucky mother got a phone call from her dying daughter during Wednesday’s massacre- a call no parent should have to remember:

“She called me and all I could hear was voices, chaos in the background,” Bailey’s mother, Secret Holt, told ABC affiliate WKRN on Wednesday. “She couldn’t say anything and I tried to call her name over and over and over and she never responded.”

A daughter whose last act was to try to talk to her parents. One cannot imagine what that would be like for the young girl whose life was violently snuffed out senselessly and avoidably.

A father spotted his son’s socks in an ambulance and knew what that meant:

Brian Cope knew it was bad when he spotted Preston’s socks in an ambulance as he and his wife, Teresa, reached the chaotic scene at the school, he told the Courier-Journal.
They arrived not long before Preston, sprawled on a stretcher with a head wound, was pronounced dead en route to a Nashville hospital, the newspaper said.
“Just senseless. it was just senseless,” Brian Cope told the Courier-Journal.

Senseless. How many times have we said that and I have written that?

Too many.

For one family, the phone call will forever be a nightmare. It is only one part of the cost of shootings and gun violence in America that far too many families experience every day. My family has experienced the phone call- a phone call I will never forget. I will never forget the voice of my sister’s son telling me to sit down while he delivered the news of my sister’s death in a domestic shooting.

For the other, hearing about a school shooting via media ( not sure how) or some kind of message that they should not have had to hear wondering if their own son was a victim.

Those killed will never experience another sunrise or a sunset. Families and friends will grieve and try to deal in the best way they know how with the devastating loss of their son, daughter, sister, mother, brother, aunt, friend, husband, wife….. In time, they will be able to enjoy the simple things in life like enjoying a sunrise, eating out, traveling, family events, holidays, etc. It will be very difficult and nothing will be the same. The tears will flow unexpectedly in a moment of a fleeting memory or something to remind one of their lost loved one. A scene, a look in someone’s eyes, a person who looks eerily like the loved one, going to a place loved by the victim, a toast to the person killed at a family event, etc.

The true cost of gun violence and shootings is unimaginable. There are economic costs. There are emotional costs. There are court costs, health care costs, law enforcement costs, even the cost of cleaning up a horrific crime scene. Sandy Hook Elementary school was torn down after that massacre. Emergency responders suffer from PTSD after some of these deadly and bloody mass shooting.  Too many memories.

The one article about the economic costs asks if America can afford the cost of gun violence? The answer is a resounding NO.

This is what gets lost in the ludicrous debate over gun rights. Those on the side of never agreeing to common sense laws that could save lives don’t get this reality. For them, it appears to be the cost of “freedom”. They are free to enjoy the sunrises and sunsets. They have no memories of a loved one whose life was violently and suddenly taken by someone with a gun in his/her hand loaded with bullets intended for innocent people whose only fault was being in the right place at the right time going to school, work, or wherever shootings occur suddenly.

It is not inevitable or normal for so many parents to lose children so violently in senseless and avoidable school shootings.

That is why I have been and will continue to work to make sure Americans get to see the sunrises and sunsets and enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

We are better than this.