Wake Up Sister Wake Up Now‪!‬

"Wake Up Sister Wake Up Now" is a Graphic Short Story I created, that I hope will help illuminate a cause that has gone long unnoticed. During the writing of another project recently I was re-awakened to a childhood memory that occurred more than six decades ago; which only reminded me of how long and how often I have had to suffer the memory of the sad event. Reliving that memory, I have to confess, brought me to tears, again.
You never forget it but it happens. It happens more than you can imagine and it isn’t a forgettable experience. When I was very young, a close boyhood friend unexpectedly disappeared one day.
It was several months later that I learned what happened to my friend. I believe it was on a weekend morning, when playing downstairs in our basement; my mother came with the sad news. She said, “I have something I need to tell you," and went on… “Your friend that disappeared, I just learned, has committed suicide.” Well, I cried of course for a very long time afterward.
I assumed he had shot himself and whether it truly was suicide or not I will probably never know? As an adult, and a parent now, I don’t know how else you are to tell a child that his friend has just committed suicide. We as parents aren’t taught how to do that. The fact that it still troubles me at this late age should say something about how these types of events affect us for the rest of our lives. Though many generations have passed, the hurt never goes completely away.
There are similar events, increasingly and continuously, going on around us that we have a tendency to want to ignore. Because, I think, they are too painful to think about. No one wants to deal with them. The events I am referring to are children killing children. When finding a parent’s, or guardian’s unsecured weapon; a child’s guilt can only be attributed to their inherent curiosity. It is the parent’s carelessness where-in the guilt lies. I think it is time, we as a nation did something about it.
Statistics show, by the end of 2015, approximately 265 children picked up a firearm and shot someone by accident. Their families, and their victim’s families, will never be able to forget what happened to their loved ones. The pain and the memory of the hurt will forever be unforgettable.
I have spent time looking for records of my friends life to no avail. It is almost like he never existed and that should be a crime in itself. At his young age, where did my friend get a gun and who did it belong to?
My Graphic story, while short on content is long on message. There are statistics that tell us there are problems we need to deal with. The sooner our gun owning parent population is made aware the better. Our children are killing each other because adults aren’t taking on the responsibilities of lethal weapon ownership by keeping them in secure locations.
There is no doubt that hand guns are considered lethal weapons. They are nothing more than small canons we can carry in our pockets. Some owners I’m sure consider them nothing more than accessories. It is often said that guns don’t kill people… people kill people. I can’t disagree with that. Our laws are written to allow gun ownership… I don’t disagree with that either.
What I also know as well is automobiles don’t kill people; it’s the people that are driving them that do so. An automobile could also be considered a lethal weapon because they are also a party to the accident. Here is the interesting part; we are required to license our cars and also required to have a license to drive them. Plus, you are also required to pass a test on rules of the road, not to mention being able to see well enough. Because the automobile can be a dangerous weapon in the hands of someone unqualified to operate it, and the vehicle and it’s operator are capable of inflicting damage on persons and property, we are also required to have liability insurance on the weapon at hand… the car.