Do you know what it’s like to be on the other end of a gun? Do you know what it’s like to wake up, after falling asleep naked in the comfort of your home, with two young men, maybe kids, pointing guns at you? Do you know what it’s like to have no power over your own body or your own life, praying you get only raped and not killed? Do you know what it is to be robbed of your sense of safety? Do you know what it’s like to, two times, have your hometown all over the news? Do you know what it’s like to spend a year hearing stories of how people you love and care about, who were out dancing where they could be themselves, survived fearing their lives as 49 didn’t keep theirs? Do you know what it’s like to, through Facebook, hear about your cousin, who was at school learning, being on the same floor as an active shooter? Do you know what that feels like after working day in and out with survivors of gun violence, to have that person be family and a child? Do you know what that feels like, after you just spent two days advocating for change in Tallahassee with over 200 other victims of crime like yourself? Do you know what it’s like to be on the other end of a phone, with someone that doesn’t know how to cope with what they went through, that wants to now take their own life? I don’t think you do. But I don’t think you should have to experience it firsthand if you really represent and support anyone outside of yourself. It’s about time you change laws about guns, it’s about time you begin funding mental health, it’s about time you begin talking about mental illness in ways that encourage help seeking, and it’s about time you improve support for survivors- before more can relate to me in any way.
