I didn't write Mendorff's to be an anti-gun ownership tome. I wrote it because the ordinary world is filled with extraordinary stories: I wanted to probe deeper into who the bookstore victims had been before the incident, and who they became as a result of it. There's the question of disrupted lives, broken relationships, and physical injuries, to say nothing of emotional trauma. That process continues long after physical scars have healed. Within a fictional context, I also wanted to consider the fallout of the shooter's terrible decision on his loved ones left behind, the "designated monsters" who knew him but could not thwart his plans.
In my work, I had conversations with a retired homicide detective, and an ER/trauma unit doctor who was interning at a Littleton, CO, hospital the day of the Columbine shootings. I visited her ER trauma unit, watched them intubate the collapsed lung of a shooting victim, and read psychological profiles on what goes into the making of a rampage killer.
But this research, the news stories — all come back to the same bottom line: This is not getting better for us, whether we advocate for gun safety or gun ownership. We're polarizing on the issue (bickering on social media) while the NRA owns the discussion, with political swag going to self-serving politicians to look the other way, or to support NRA and GOA interests.
Right now a 9-year-old girl faces years of trauma counseling for accidentally killing a man with an Uzi. What the hell are we becoming?
Whether you believe in gun safety or gun ownership, write your elected leaders and hold their feet to the fire based on what you believe. They need to hear from more of us. Reinforce that this is a democracy and not a question of fealty to special interest groups. #notonemore
The ever-brilliant Mike Luckovich nails it again with a single image.
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