Image: Wikicommons Media
July 1, 1993. Approximately 3:15 PM.
I’m working on my college break as an intern in San Francisco. I hear many sirens, so many that the glass door separating me from the outside of Sansome Street seems to reverberate with the noise. I ask a colleague to cover the desk as I walk outside. I ask a passerby if they know what is happening.
“Stay inside,” he said. “There’s a gunman on the loose.”
This was the massacre at 101 California Street. Eight people were killed that day. Including a newlywed shielding his wife from the gunman and an intern, like myself.
I didn’t forget my anger. But I let it pass.
April 20, 1999
A fellow co-worker advises me to check cnn.com. I watch in horror the developing story of children killing other children in Columbine, Colorado.
April 16, 2007
I’m pregnant with the twins. I hear about a mass shooting on the Virginia Tech campus: 32 dead. To keep myself and my babies protected, I turn away from the coverage.
November 5, 2009
Two days before the twins’ birthday, a man attacks an Army base at Ft. Hood, Texas. 13 are dead. I console myself with this report about the heroine who prevented more casualties.
January 8, 2011
Six people are killed at a rally for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords when a gunman opens fire on a crowd. A nine year old girl is among the dead.
April 4, 2012
In a mass killing that gets little coverage except locally, a man opens fire at a local college, killing seven.
July 20, 2012
Twelve people are killed by a gunman during a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises, 50+ injured.
I know that psychopaths exist. I’ve read Dave Cullen’s Columbine. I know that these (usually) men are going to find ways to try to kill people.
Let’s just not make it easy for them.
I’ve had enough. There is NO NEED for one man to possess 4 LEGAL firearms, including a semi-automatic weapon. There is no need for one man to possess 6,000 rounds of ammunition.
PLEASE! Let’s make it harder for these people to kill us and our families.
I’ve had ENOUGH.
I’m sending this post to my local congressperson. If you agree, I hope you do too. That’s the only way we can make change happen. I’m tired of the NRA completely dominating the discussion. They have done so for FAR too long.
Edited to Add: THIS. Because they said it much better than me.
It hurts doesn’t it? This insanity.
I don’t understand it either. :p It is happening here in Canada too, albeit on a smaller scale than in the U.S. There was a shooting at a block party in Toronto this week — two people killed, about 20 injured. Apparently the guy wasn’t even aiming, just shooting over his shoulder as he ran. :p It happened just a few blocks from where my FIL lived.
Enough is right.
It is heartbreaking to reflect on all of those tragedies with you here.
Sending peace, love, lights and prayers to all those touched and broken by them.
Yes. There’s no reason why anyone would need 6,000 rounds of ammunition, even if he IS sane.
I couldn’t agree more. I routinely write my representatives about gun control, and receive responses that could have been drafted by the NRA. Sigh.