We asked readers on social media and in our weekly newsletter to share their thoughts about how gun violence has impacted them. Some respondents chose to remain anonymous because of the subject matter’s sensitivity; others said that even though they worry about it regularly, they chose not to share more because they felt other people were more qualified to weigh in. Here’s what our readers expressed.
Has gun violence affected you personally — either directly or indirectly? If so, how?
On February 14, 2018, there was a shooting at the high school in Parkland, Florida, the town where I grew up. I soon learned that the shooter had killed two students in one of my former teacher’s classrooms. My teacher was teaching Holocaust Studies, a program my grandfather had helped start. Some of the students lost had been preschoolers at a summer camp where I had worked as a junior counselor. The repercussions of gun violence spread so much farther than the diameter of the bullet hole. I have panic attacks when I see people carrying guns in public places like grocery stores. Every new mass shooting reopens the wound. This is what gun violence does.
—Ros Lederman, via email
A close relative who grew up like a sister to me took her life with a gun. A lack of understanding of bipolar II disorder made it such that extreme mood swings were dismissed as a personality trait, rather than a mental health disorder. Had easy access to a gun in the house not provided a quick solution to anguish she was experiencing in the moment, her impulse may not have materialized. It changed our lives forever.
—Anonymous, via email
I’m grateful to not have been directly impacted, like too many, senselessly and disgracefully, in this city and country. It does feel like a numbers game, when and where it will happen.
—Samantha Garcia, Chicago
I can list the many gun deaths that have happened around me since I was a kid. I don’t know that I can say they affected me; it has just been part of my life. But all of it is very clear to me, so they made an impression. It goes to show that it’s nothing new. It happens more often now, but it was still happening then, too.
—Margie Brandt, Vernon Hills, Illinois
We changed our child’s school partly because of too many gun incidents. It still haunts me because I know it can happen again anywhere.
—Anonymous, Chicago
It has not affected me personally. It’s always a concern, though, because I have a school-age child who now has to go through gun violence-related drills.
—Beth Comer, Westlake, Ohio
