I am here another year without my son, Derrick White. His birthday is 1/6/1973. Every year since his death, it gets harder. My son was gunned down in the streets of Philadelphia. In 1993, Derrick was shot in the back as he ran away from the shooter. People say time heals, but it’s not true. If that were true, then why have these vigils? I have tried to attend these events, and I follow the web sites for gun control but things have not change. In my world, you can still buy a gun on a street corner. I am a mother who will never heal.
A National Conversation on How We Can Prevent Gun Deaths and Injuries
Personal Stories & Tributes
Story: Children and A Loaded Gun
In the 1960′s I was a teacher at a school in Prince Georges County, Maryland. One Election Day when school was out, children from the neighborhood gathered at the home of one of the youngsters and they were playing in the basement without adult supervision. One child produced a handgun and the children handed it [...]
Tribute to James Pagano
My brother, Jimmy, a lieutenant in the Cranston Fire Department, was shot in the back by his next door neighbor (a former cop) with a semi-automatic weapon while running for his life at his son’s 9th outdoor birthday party. A tennis ball the kids were playing with accidentally hit the neighbor’s car, an argument ensued, [...]
Tribute to John Trover
My cousin Johnny Mo Trover was murdered by his wife with a handgun. She shot him while he slept. Then she tried to convince police that an intruder was the gunman. When her story started to unravel and it seemed like she would be going to jail, she killed herself with a shotgun. They left [...]
Tribute to Christina-Taylor Green
I was with my daughter when I got a horrific phone call from my mother. I had heard that there was a shooting in Tucson earlier on the news but it seemed so far away, and I initially thought it was not an area that my brother lived in. How very wrong and how very [...]
Tribute to Jennifer Crecente
Jennifer met her boyfriend when she was 16. She dated him for over two years. During those years they went through a lot. He was never physically abusive before but he was very verbally and emotionally abusive. She was finally able to break free from him in 2005. But on February 15, 2006, Jennifer (then [...]
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