being shot in public

generally i have decided i can't really engage with what is happening in the states with gun control. it hurts too much. i am already a person who feels too deeply, and a person who has always had a heavy-set terror of firearms. my biggest, most unfounded-in-anything-actually fear for most of my life has been of 'being shot in public'. long before i moved to a city where that might, actually, maybe, probably not, happen. i will never understand people who 'love' guns. so i don't look at much or read much about the mass shootings and the perpetual conversation about gun control. it isn't good for me. but i have read one piece this week. today. after seeing all the headlines about the senate and the despicable, pathetic vote on common-sense legislation.

* gabrielle giffords shames those who voted no.

because she is a thoughtful woman who understands what guns can do all too well. and also understands what it is to be in the shuffle of politicized priorities. and so she is the best voice i can think of to turn to.

'Some of the senators who voted against the background-check amendments have met with grieving parents whose children were murdered at Sandy Hook, in Newtown. Some of the senators who voted no have also looked into my eyes as I talked about my experience being shot in the head at point-blank range in suburban Tucson two years ago, and expressed sympathy for the 18 other people shot besides me, 6 of whom died. These senators have heard from their constituents — who polls show overwhelmingly favored expanding background checks. And still these senators decided to do nothing. Shame on them.

This defeat is only the latest chapter of what I’ve always known would be a long, hard haul. Our democracy’s history is littered with names we neither remember nor celebrate — people who stood in the way of progress while protecting the powerful. On Wednesday, a number of senators voted to join that list.'

{gabrielle giffords for the new york times}