The first week of April was dedicated to the survivors of gun violence. While that is a worthy endeavor, a question arises as to how many survivors of gun violence there are in America. We can start with an easily identified group, people, primarily women, who survive an assault by an armed abusive partner. We can also look at the statistics published after mass shootings for another clue. In our most recent encounter as residents of Indiana, we could define survivors as the five people wounded at the recent incident at the FedEx plant on April 15, 2021. If we read the obituaries of those who died, we should add the relatives who lost a spouse, grandparent, parent, child or sibling. Sadly, there is an iceberg of survivors growing and these numbers would only represent the tip of the “survivors iceberg.”
A recently published book entitled
Children Under Fire, by John Woodrow Cox, helps explain the need to expand our analysis to grasp how many survivors are there. The author focuses on children as an example. The following is excerpted from a review of the book published on a bookseller website.
“In 2017, seven-year-old Ava in South Carolina wrote a letter to Tyshaun, an eight-year-old boy from Washington, DC. She asked him to be her pen pal; Ava thought they could help each other. The kids had a tragic connection—both were traumatized by gun violence. Ava’s best friend had been killed in a campus shooting at her elementary school, and Tyshaun’s father had been shot to death outside of the boy’s elementary school. Ava’s and Tyshaun’s stories are extraordinary, but not unique. In the past decade, 15,000 children have been killed from gunfire, though that number does not account for the kids who weren’t shot and aren’t considered victims but have nevertheless been irreparably harmed by gun violence.”
By Mr. Cox analysis, there are as many as five million children who endure trauma each year as a result of gun violence. They were in attendance when their school was the scene of a shooting, and now are participants in active shooter drills. They have lost someone in an incident. Maybe there hasn’t been an incident at their school, but now they are reminded of the possibility of such an event on a regular basis because we attempt to keep them safe in case their school is the site of such an incident.
As Americans, we now have to reckon with the fact that we could be a victim or direct survivor of gun violence if we go to work, go to grade school, go to primary school, got to college, attend services at our house of worship, go to the grocery store, visit a massage parlor, attend a concert, walk down a street in our neighborhood, walk or jog in an unfamiliar neighborhood. That also means we could be an uncounted survivor in the event someone we love is a victim or counted survivor.
As Catholics, we believe firmly in the sanctity of human life. As Americans, we know that between 67% and 70 % of us support some sort of gun reform often described as common-sense regulation, and that change will only happen when Americans tell their elected representatives to make it happen. Increasing the number of survivors should not be the goal. Decreasing the events that make us survivors should be.
Previous JCC articles have published links to the support of the USCCB for common-sense regulations as well as the contact information for area representatives in the US Congress and Indiana Legislature. We encourage you to visit USCCB.org and explore the multiple articles on gun control. Please contact your representatives to express your opinion on gun violence.