A friend of mine got shot the other night. He was leaving a party, getting into his car and “they” told him to give them his money…but shot him before he could. What made it different for me from the myriads of gun atrocities I hear about on TV or read of was that he was my friend. Because he lived, he still is my friend. That shot through his liver and his lung has cost him his job, his apartment, and his health. As he had no medical insurance his $8,000 hospital and doctors’ bills are continuing to rise and he has just returned to the hospital with phlebitis which has developed since the operation. Grim. There is private aid to victims of crime for items such as blankets, clothing, food, but as he still has those, he will receive no other help from a society which has nurtured the use and abuse of guns.
I have been one of the silent majority on the subject of gun control…until now. And with the hope that one case history is NOT needed to spur each of us to commit to banning hand guns and establishing state or local aid to victims, I have joined the Missouri Committee for Firearms Safety. Our neighborhood does not need guns. More of our friends do not need to become victims in order to push us to action.
A concerted effort CAN bring laws and aid:
Originally published in The Paper, December 1976.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1976_12.pdf, printed page(s) 2; PDF page(s) 2.
