Three years agoOn June 16, 2022, an unfamiliar person attended a Church of Potluck in St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church near Birmingham, Allah. The man sat alone with food. While others suffered, man shot and killed three people.
Kathryn Laumer is in Potluck. He saw both of his friends shot. First, Sharon was shouted and came down. Then Laumer saw the man who focused on the gun in Jane Pounds: “I’ll see … The orange fire that has made it out and still smells the burnt odor.” Looking at his friend, Launger saw there “Jane’s no more face.” The two girls died. The third victim was Bart Rainey.
After shooting, Laumer experienced and uneven flashbacks. He couldn’t sleep. On October 2022, after 15 years of sadness, Laumer began to drink again. Alcohol helped temporarily, but flashbacks returned with revenge when he said. By January 2023, it became many.
With three equal occasions while drunk, Laumer bought a gun to kill himself. The first time he decided to call his therapist in the last minute. The second time his wife returned home from work early. For the third time he went to a hotel to not open. Laumer placed the gun on his head and pulled the trigger, but the gun was not properly charged. (He did well these days. Launger told me that he recently recovered one day at a time with his friends and family support.)
Gun violence experiences like Laumer’s are all common. The number of US shootings is raised in the present years: From 273 in 2014 to 647 in 2022. And that second number does not include shooting at St. Stephen’s, because to meet the meaning of a mass shooting, four people should be killed with a gun.
tight-fitting two-thirds Of shooting survivors (63%) experienced post-traumatic stress disorder. Austin eubit Saw his best friend killed in a 1999 shooting shooting Columbine High School in Colorado. Nineteen years after shooting, Eboans told a reporter: “These are many traumas. It’s like an earthquake.” Within a week next year, two survivors in Parkland, Fla., Mass shooting dies by a 6-year-old victim of Sandy Hook Killings.
Shooting saves like Laummer requires many ways to protect themselves against suicide. A new tool is already available in Colorado, Delarew, Utah, Virginia and Washington: “Donna’s law“Or the”Volunteer list that cannot be sold. “Any of the states can be voluntary and confident to suspend their own ability to buy a gun. For example, if the launger is determined, he can protect himself against a future buying gun while drunk and committed suicide.
Suicide is always pressed. only 10% To people who survive a suicide attempt continues to strive until they kill themselves. In a gun, there are some second time. Delay access to weapons in spite of a few days shown in decrease Suicide of the weapon without increased suicide through other methods. Many people decided against killing themselves; Others shift a less fatal way and live.
People want to protect themselves this way. In a medical center just a few miles from the church in Launger, 46% In patients who received psychiatric care say they sign up for the law of Donna. Launger sign up to: Sign up is easy. Virginia allows registration by mail. And in Utah, Laumer may demand his therapist to send in the form for him. Colorado has an electronic registration option if it can raise enough funds.
So why do these laws are very unique? Politics and profits. The Bipartisan Bills that made Donna’s law introduced Alabama and Congress before Launger bought his guns. The opposition from National Rifle Assn. have been defeated by both bills, as it is in many states. NRA wants everyone to buy a gun easily, even people who don’t need to buy a gun.
To be clear, it does not relate to the 2nd change. Donna’s law has no effect on gun owners or anyone who chooses not to participate. A person with access to a gun is obviously unnecessary to buy another gun for a suicide attempt.
NRA protects the gun industry, not gun owners. In fact, when a thousand armor owners were asked about the law of Donna, a MANY it is supported. The real “problem” of Donna’s law is the same thing that makes it effective: it reduces gun sales. The industry seems to think every gun sales is a great gun sales, even if buyer is active suicide. The same gun dealer continued to sell the barrels of the launger, even after he and his wife returned to them to protect him.
To a Collection of essays Published by 2023, the member of the Church Jim Musgrove wrote it: “Now, most of the story is told and we never have Sinted Stephen.”
The pain of survivors may not end, but the cycle of violence and death should not be infinite.
Fredrick Vars is a Professor of Law of University of Alabama and Co-author of the book “Optional weapons: combat with gunmen as gun rights respect. ”
