Have you lost someone to gun violence? Today was bittersweet and hopeful.

Have you personally been affected?  Have you lost someone to gun violence and do you feel pain and hope with a blender of emotion?   I personally do have those feelings tonight.   

I have written about this before but the stories made me tearful and cry.  It flooded my mind with a vivid memory of Nov. 2004.   

( Warning:  Traumatic graphic writing)

What the NRA and legislators do not feel or understand or care is the trauma these kids feel.  I understand.  I feel it.  I experienced that trauma when a young girl who had become a part of our family for 6 years got involved with some wrong way people and left the state and was involved with people in the drug culture.   

The last time I saw her, she was laughing in spite of her childhood which was extremely troubling and poverty stricken.  She had been abused and molested as a child but she was still bubbly and full of personality.  She was beautiful.   She was terrified of violence and extremely fearful of guns.

On a cold November morning I got a call from Alabama when I was told she had been shot 6 times in the head and back as she ran for her life to escape someone who was killing everyone in the place she was staying.  As far as I know the killer or killers were never  brought to justice.   I remember the numbness and shock I felt.   I could not believe this had happened.   I could identify the vomiting the young lady endured today at the podium while speaking.  

The young lady that was killed was killed by felons.  She was killed by being in the wrong place at the wrong time but she was killed by the thing she feared the most.  I have heard she was killed by a semi automatic weapon.   I heard she was running down the hall and fell over in a pool of blood.  I heard she could not even be identified except by dental records.   Her sister told me she was transported from forensics  in a garbage bag for burial.  I feel so hurt and feel the pain as I did that day as I heard those stories and saw the victims who survived. 

I know some folks who, emotionally unstable go into an area with a gun and blow themselves away.  How did they get guns?   Yes the suicides were self inflicted and could and have ended their lives in other ways but the murders….killed by people who should NEVER had access to guns had no choice in their demise. 

The effect it has on the people who loved the ones killed is unable to explain.  It leaves a  hole in your heart.   You shake your head and wonder how in the world can a person in a democracy stand still for this kind of bloody violence.  How can the green of the dollar outweigh the red of the blood running down our streets?

How can people believe than one life is lesser than another?   How can people believe all guns are equal but all lives are not?   A musket is not an AR-15 or glock, or 9 MM.  Squirrel guns and muskets and shotguns were what the founders had in mind for the 2nd amendment and did not have the national guard and armies which constitutes a well organized militia.   How can people be so scared of their fellow man that they feel they have to have guns laying around and if confronted could not even get to that weapon to defend themselves most of the time? 

The pursuit of happiness?  Not so much.  The right to life, liberty and justice?  Not so much.  I hate the NRA.  They are greedy bloodthirsty cowards.  They ARE a terrorist organization in my opinion.  Those who stand for the  NRA IMO like Fox Rot are also terrorist sympathizers.

Call your congresspeople and get involved because America is self destructing with guns and violence.   Hate….Lack of responsibility of legislators...lack of leadership.  YOU HAVE TO VOTE THESE SLACKERS OUT !!!!!

These children today are brave and scared but willing to stand.  We need to take on this movement with courage and take it on with many fronts.  Gun control is a matter of national security.  Thanks for listening.  Apathy is an enemy and can kill you, your children or other loved ones.  Please show just an ounce of courage displayed by these kids to save their lives.  It’s time to stop putting up with all the nonsense and trauma in this country called America.  Every penny you pay in tax supports this lack of legislation.  Make that change.     

This needs to be updated to today’s march.