Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)- Guest Blogger
I just saw this article and I had to report on it here. A Chicago woman is grieving the loss of her 4th child to gun violence. Her child was one of Five people shot and killed overnight in Chicago. “Ronnie Chambers, who was his mother Shirley’s youngest child, was shot in the head Saturday while sitting in a parked car on the city’s West Side. A 21-year-old man who was also in the car was wounded, police said. Shirley Chambers, whose two other sons and daughter were shot in separate attacks more than a decade ago, was left grieving again on Saturday, WLS-TV reported. “Right now, I’m totally lost because Ronnie was my only surviving son,” Chambers said.
Shirley Chambers’ first child, Carlos, was shot and killed by a high school classmate in 1995 after an argument. He was 18. Her daughter Latoya, then 15, and her other son Jerome were shot and killed within months of one another in 2000. “What did I do wrong?” she asked Saturday. “I was there for them. We didn’t have everything we wanted but we had what we needed.”
Chambers said despite this latest tragic chapter in her life, she’s not bitter or angry. “They took my only child. I have nobody right now. That’s my only baby,” she said. MSN.com
How can anyone see this continued gun violence and not be angered and want to do something to stop it? Reasonable gun control won’t solve all of our gun violence problems, but it is a good start. We have to deal with poverty, unemployment, drug abuse and the failed war on drugs also. However, some of these 5 people might not have died if guns were not so easily obtainable. What do you think? How can we reduce gun violence? We must start to act now or it will never get any better.