We learned yesterday (Thursday) that five people were murdered in Rock Hill: an A/C repair man, a prominent doctor, his wife, and their two grandchildren. They were killed by a professional football player who committed suicide today as police surrounded his house. Mike and Sarah went to college with the grandparents, Barbara and Robert Lesslie, and Mama went to church with them.
Within just the past six months we have known two sets of murdered families or known their families. The other was our dear friend, Jenny's, sister and her husband by the hands of his father, who then killed himself while the sister's child hid and survived.Mass shootings or even multiple or single shootings in the United States have long ago gotten to be the norm. But it is not normal... not for Jenny's whole family and especially the son who survived - they are dealing with trauma and loss.
Not for the Lesslie's son... He has lost his parents and his precious young ones in one horrid act. Their church has lost loyal members and their friends and other family members have not only lost their loved ones but now are living with the trauma of violent murders.
With the murder of Jenny's sister and husband, they knew their killer. Can you imagine the horror of having your own father shoot your wife and you?
With the Lesslie's murders, can you imagine the helplessness of knowing you can't protect your grandchildren? Or just working a routine service call and suddenly facing someone with a gun?
Besides the death... The terror is overwhelming.
My sister-in-law's family member teaches with the football player's mother... She is a good teacher I was told. Can you imagine having to not only have to cope with the suicide of your child but also that he took five people's lives including those of two small children?
It is tragic from every angle from which one might choose to view these murders. And most definitely these acts of violence should not be normal. Never.
And yet...
The shock is not serious enough to force action against the ease in which guns can be purchased. I don't know how one can get the U. S. government to ignore the money and legislate on behalf of their citizens... to protect them. More U.S. citizens have been killed in the last 50 years by guns than U.S. soldiers in all the wars and non-wars (i.e. conflicts like Vietnam) combined that the US has ever been in (https://www.nbcnews.com/
In the US we have the highest number of guns owned... 120.5 per 100 people. The next highest is Yemen with 52.8 per 100 people. (https://www.bbc.com/news/
Globally, in just 2021, the U. S. ranks 7th in the number of deaths by guns (per 100,000 people) (https://
Japan has the lowest number of deaths with their strict gun laws. Honduras has the highest with 60 per 100,000, third is El Salvador with 45, and fourth is Guatemala with 35. Note: these are the nations that the immigrants who are flooding the US borders are coming from.
The U. S. goes to war and bombs to protect our so-call freedoms and interests but will not legislate to protect the freedoms, interests, and lives of Jenny's sister or the Lesslies.
In the U.S., shootings are normal events to cope with... along with COVID-19 deaths, school drills for shootings (held like fire drills), mental illness, and prisons over-flowing with the mentally ill and drug offenders.
Take it from someone who lives in a different country, none of these are normal. Those who live in the US should not have to choose to live with this.
And yet...
The U. S. goes to war and bombs to protect our so-call freedoms and interests but will not legislate to protect the freedoms, interests, and lives of Jenny's sister or the Lesslies.
In the U.S., shootings are normal events to cope with... along with COVID-19 deaths, school drills for shootings (held like fire drills), mental illness, and prisons over-flowing with the mentally ill and drug offenders.
Take it from someone who lives in a different country, none of these are normal. Those who live in the US should not have to choose to live with this.
And yet...
- Kathleen
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