Of gun control, and the murder of my two friends in Connecticut

By Deborah Petersen
dpetersen@mercurynews.com
Posted: 12/15/2012 11:57:15 AM PST
Updated: 12/15/2012 04:13:59 PM PST

When I was 20 years old, a friend of mine murdered two of my close friends ...

Having experienced the surreal shock of losing two friends to bullets, I can only imagine the agony these parents, teachers and children are experiencing in Sandy Hook, a village in Newtown. It took me at least a year to get over the sensation that would wash over me frequently, a fear that someone might shoot me for no logical reason. It is only a coincidence that both these shootings happened in Connecticut, of course, but they are similar in that they both involved young men, guns, and mental health problems, undiagnosed or not.

Since the shooting, which sent me and my friends to three funerals in a single
week, I have heard all the debates about gun control, and every time after one of these mass shootings occurs, I shake my head, knowing that the debate will pass and we will cave in and move on. Then, the next mass shooting will happen and the photographs of grieving parents and terrified children all will remind us Americans that we have failed. We have failed to take on the NRA, failed to demand that our Congress take on these powerful lobbyists, failed to stop passing the buck. President Barack Obama teared up Friday when he spoke of the shootings, but will Americans and Congress support him if he tries to take "meaningful action" when it comes to changing gun laws?

Here is a fact to ponder. In the vast majority of the 61 mass shooting in America since 1982, the guns which killed the victims were purchased legally — and most likely, easily. You can buy guns at Walmart ...

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