Guns Owners Should Help

It’s been more than 20 years since my son, Ken, 28, was killed by a bullet that ripped into his brain. A man in Ken’s bar got angry after a short argument, pulled out a .45-caliber handgun and started shooting. Others, including a young off-duty deputy sheriff, dropped to the floor as the shooting started. But Ken was caught in a narrow area behind the bar where he couldn’t duck. The shooting was such a senseless, unnecessary act. If the man hadn’t had a gun so handy, he probably would have cooled off or been subdued by those around him. But a gun makes killing too easy and hard to control.

As the weeks and months went by, neighbors, relatives and friends sympathized with our pain, but his shooting death caused hardly a ripple in the community. I think most of them felt immune from having one of their loved ones killed with a gun. I longed to have the comfort of a small-town community that would rally around the victims of such a killing and demand that changes be made.

A few weeks ago, I walked along Wilshire Boulevard with the Million Mom March--the first act I’d taken to protest the death of my son. I walked alongside moms and dads pushing babies in strollers, young adults, teenagers, older and middle-age folk; many held signs of protest or photos of those they had lost to guns. I felt a rise of emotion as I realized that, at last, after my years of feeling helpless and hopeless, the community was now rallying to insist that their legislators do something about gun violence.

I respect my friends and relatives who sincerely believe that they have a right to their guns. They are the ones who know guns best and should be able to help find ways to make gun ownership safe and end the senseless killings in homes, schools and the work place.