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Not Just One Life Lost

November 8th, 2007, blog post by kmcomer

I got an email recently from the father of a young man whose life was tragically cut short by gun violence last year. He is making an effort to send updates about the trial of the young man accused of killing his son. The father wrote of how incredibly de-sensitized we are to gun violence. A person in the pool of prospective jurors who heard of his son's story explained that he had given the story passing attention -- just another shooting. The father wrote that he had felt the same way, too, until it was his son.

The young man who was killed is mourned by his family, and will be in perpituity. And the young man accused of killing him and his family will also spend their lives remembering the one fatal moment and wishing that things had unfolded differently. The email tells the story that our newspapers and our public discussion does not tell often enough -- that the effects of gun violence go well beyond the life of the individual who is shot.

There are people who say we can't do anything about gun violence -- but we can. Research has shown that simple solutions can save lives, we just need to act -- to change our policies, to change our very way of thinking. To hope for a time and place when gun violence once again becomes shocking and rare. We can save lives if we come together as a community on this issue and demand change.

We're working toward change every day. Here's to safer communities, safer families and safer kids!