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 around just as nine and 10 year-olds are likely to do. One of the boys pointed it at another boy and pulled the trigger, killing the boy. The boy who shot the gun was so terrified he ran out of the house and could not be found for hours. The boy who was killed was popular, a Boy Scout, and very bright. He was buried in his Boy Scout uniform. I will never get the image out of my mind of the boy there in the open coffin. The incident completely tore apart a once very close-knit neighborhood. Names have been forgotten but I am sure the boy who pulled the trigger had his life changed forever.
A National Conversation on How We Can Prevent Gun Deaths and Injuries
Personal Stories & Tributes
Tribute to Matthew Whittington
Our son Matthew is truly a blessing from God. Such a good son, good person and good in every aspect. He wanted to save the world and everybody in it. Then on March 14, 2007 ,for reasons beyond comprehension, Matthew was found shot to death along with our longtime neighbors who lived just behind our [...]
Tribute to Lori Gonzalez
On May 28, 2000, Lori Gonzalez, granddaughter of then, Los Angeles police chief, Bernard Parks, was shot and killed while driving with a friend in her car in L.A. She was an innocent victim caught up in what is believed to have been a gang-related attack, just a week shy of her 21st birthday. A [...]
Tribute to Sha’Nee Dougherty
Sha’Nee Lauren Dougherty, our middle daughter, became a victim of gun violence in the early hours of August 18, 2008 at the age of 17. As she ended the summer in her old neighborhood of 22nd Street, SE, she was visiting friends and enjoying the last hours of summer before preparing to attend college. A [...]
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 Shane Patrick McCullough
I lost my best friend, my brother on July, 02, 2007 in Port Charlotte, Florida. My brother was the best son, brother, nephew, grandson, cousin and friend anyone could ask for. His smile and sense of style and good looks were to die for, unfortunately someone selfishly took all that away from us. Shane was [...]
In our mid-west USA university’s Speech class, a student pulled a gun out of a paper bag, in 1966 or 1967, I think. He put a bullet in the gun. Without many words to his “speech” he slowly waved the gun over our heads as we sat in the chairs in the class. Then he went on with his “speech”. I don’t remember what it was about, nor much fuss about the incident, then. I’m horrified now. Guns were allowed, but locked in the House Mother’s locker until requested for hunting season purposes. But I saw others in the Men’s dorm with other pistols. What were we thinking? How many great lives have been snuffed in thoughtless moments, and unsupervised “play”, and immature “manly” rage?
Who needs it? Australia’s policy is better than the current USA’s proven, tragic, continuing experiences.
Equiping all guns to be sold to civilians with a sensor which allow only the owner of a firearm to fire it would eliminate almost all child to child to child gun deaths.