Books Jul 4, 2018 at 4:00 am

"Few people have an actual concept of how much damage a single bullet can do."

ALEX CITRIN

Comments

2

It's a shame the point of this article wasn't about how often "domestic violence" is the root cause not only of mass shootings, but of women being shot, and killed, every day in this country, let alone bystanders like your friend, while the violent man with the gun goes hunting for his girlfriend.

50 women are shot dead EVERY MONTH in the US, by their male intimate partners or former partners. That is a Las Vegas style massacre every single month, but versus one gender, at the hands of the other gender. That this isn't ever a campaign issue, or ever brought up or discussed in political debates, vs how often school shootings are, and how often they make the local and especially national news, is inexplicable, and enraging.

3

Thank you for sharing Greg's story, and your own. Gun violence is epidemic and it isn't just the people on the receiving end who are the victims - bystanders are traumatized, family members either bury the victim or need to take care of the injured, coworkers and employers feel their absence. In the end, everyone pays for all these shootings - in higher insurance premiums, in more taxes to cover higher policing / EMS costs and higher public health system costs, in increased anxiety and fear in our daily lives, we are all victims of guns. And stories like Greg's become common and lost in the deluge of similar stories.

4

I remember getting shot. Spent almost three weeks in the hospital. Part of my lung was removed. I still have a bullet in my spinal column. I remember hearing the doctor tell me it was uncertain whether or not I would live. I remember my parents being in the room to hear that too.

But to be clear, I wouldn't be here to type this post if I hadn't had a gun to stop the attack that put me in the hospital.

My parents have since purchased their own firearms.

You'll find very few survivors of gun violence who are anti-gun.

5

@2 A reason the article may not have been focused on how many women are shot is because women make up a very small percentage of gun murders or gun deaths in the US.

And society is pretty aware of it as a whole, given that partner abuse is generally potrayed as something men do to women, though women abuse at the same rates as men in just about every manifestation other than partner murder.

Let the author write about a personal experience of theirs without putting an identity politics spin on it. There is certainly a time to speak about the death of women at the hands of their male partners, but that doesn't mean there isn't room for other discussions as well.

6

@2 really odd time to bring this up, since men make up something like 80-90% of shooting victims to begin with. I get that women feel threatened, just imagine if violence was visited upon them as casually and frequently as it was upon men


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