I found this recent comment by Suzette underneath our October post Meet Jason Rzepka, Everytown for Gun Safety’s “Director of Cultural Engagement”. Click here to read the news report on the murder of commentator Suzette’s nephew, Neil Michael Godless [above] in Washington, D.C. Anything you can tell her to set her straight on gun rights? All disrespectful comments will be deleted.
Sorry to burst your bubble of inreality but our family morns the loss of a Nephew due to Gun violence. Neil was shot to death as he rode his bicycle through Sherman Circle park in DC. He was a college senior just going about his daily routine. A teen with a gun (for simple savage amusement) deliberately shot Neil to death as he peddled by. The killer then loudly boasted to his clutch of admirers “See. Like butta baby…” . . .
The killer is doing 42 years without hope of parole. Neil lost his physical life. the rest of us lost our minds. This loss if for the shooters family as well. The shitty waste of it all…continues to make me vomit. It makes me full of rage because of the lie that guns are OK. Yeah….and Merry Christmas to all you dumb gun enthusiasts. May tragedy never (pray) mark your lives.
very sad but you have to draw a line between legally held guns by citizens and illegally held guns by psychopathic gang bangers, guy must save his hate and insults for gang bangers
“A drunk driver killed my family member. Damn you car enthusiasts! Damn you Ford, Toyota, Buick, and Honda. Damn you AAA. AAA must be a terrorist organization. Ban cars. Ban roads.”
A king once tried to put it to my family so we kicked him off our patch of the Continent. We together decided that the rest of us UNDER GOD and beholden to none other would write an agreement so that we could get along and help guarantee that none of our neighbors would sh_t out part of their brain while they were sleeping, and suddenly think they were king. We adopted a 2nd amendment to our agreement only because we knew, if we didn’t, some a-hole(s) might come along and say ‘that’s not what we said’ or ‘that’s not what we meant’. But it has stood, so that, AS HAS BEEN SHOWN THROUGHOUT TIME, AND MULTIPLE EXAMPLES HENCE, that a-holes gotta dictate to the rest of us and we preserve the right to bitch-slap ’em down with 2nd Amendment items IT AIN’T JUST GUNS (if ray guns or gravity weapons come to pass, and you want some but you don’t want me to have them FU).
Sorry about your son, he and his whole neighborhood [AND MAYBE EVEN YOU] somehow convinced him that everyone he met was gonna play nice, and he paid a terrible price when people he encountered didn’t live up to that. The bigger problem IS THOSE PEOPLE. Go fight against them as hard first. You’d have a better shot at (not sympathy, because you have that along with my prayers, but) assistance.
Except for the fact that the “agreement” you’re referring to mentions god exactly 0 times. And the part about god was added 166 years afterward.
Huh?
We must ban high capacity SUVs and Fully Automatic Transmissions. Its for the children
Guns and other similar inanimate objects are OK. Violent crime and especially murder is not OK. Just trying to put it simply and not be disrespectful.
I should also add that this type of tragedy has marked my life. I had a close and loved relative kidnapped and murdered. She was thrown in a trunk at a shopping mall parking lot and these criminals later murdered her with a firearm. The criminals murdered her. They used a firearm.
I know full well the horror of losing a loved one to murder. I don’t understand how it is the object they used or others that own the same object that are to blame, because it makes absolutely no sense.
Condolences. Were the gun to be blamed for the death, then the car must be blamed for the kidnapping, but it was neither, it was the evil of man against man, not the tools of man.
I am very sorry for your loss, additional gun laws would not have helped, Washington DC has probably the most restrictive gun laws in the country. Unfortunately this simply proves that criminals do not obey the law, and these laws only affect the good people.
Sorry for their loss, but what would they be saying if he was hit by a drunk driver.
Or if the punk had run out and beaten him to death with a bat?
About forty percent of murders are committed by fists and feet.
The “knock out game” has put people into a coma and even caused death.
I guess It’s just our supposed lack of empathy, at least according to the gun grabber crowd, that make us unable to understand that being murdered by a gun is so much worse than being stomped to death.
Gungrabbers, feminists, and other “progressive” types are the ones who are completely devoid of empathy. They also love to project everything on us.
My uncle died in a car accident, you don’t hear me whining about “car enthusiast”, you do?
Quit using your dead family member’s grave as a soapbox.
Yeah, but cars aren’t designed to kill. :p
Neither are guns. I own a few dozen, I know that for a fact. Your expertise comes from whence?
Cars are designed not to kill. Automakers have spent collectively vast sums of money engineering cars not to kill.
And yet they continue to kill at horrific rates.
Obviously the automakers must be held liable for those unsafe cars out there…
Cars, like guns, are designed to help protect the operator from a failure, accident or misuse.
Those outside the car are on their own.
Sarcasm guys. The above comment I made is an antigun argument I hear all the time.
I was picking up what you were putting down.
There’s a few out there lacking a sense of humor.
Ok, I was about to pile on to you as well, Table. I’m glad you are NOT the troll I had you pegged as. I take back all the stuff I yelled at my laptop when I read your post.
Dont take it back… The “cars arent designed to kill” statement needs to be adressed. So thank you for making it.
Never forget: Spoons aren’t designed to make people fat.
And yet they cause more death and injuries every year then guns do…..
As a parent who has buried a child, for once I feel just a wee bit qualified to comment on this one. My wife and I ran the gambit of blame as most do. Her longer than I. It almost doomed our marriage and I think we are among the 15% of married couples that survive child loss. I want to be judgmental, and certainly to many people that is very easy. Yet my experience, and yes pain, tell me that it is best to just leave it alone. Tragic loss is emotional. And things we don’t mean and later regret come pouring out. Those who already are predisposed to gun loathing will find it very easy to blame objects because it’s easy. So I have learned to temper myself with respect to comments like these. And I recommend, before anyone posts their thoughts, that they find the deepest, darkest, most painful place in their soul. And after the tears dry try putting your feelings to word.
+1
“Those who already are predisposed to gun loathing will find it very easy to blame objects because it’s easy.”
Well, said. I first saw this happen 25 years ago when the band Judas Priest was sued by the parents of two guys who committed suicide after—their parents claimed—they’d listened to “subliminal” messages contained in a Judas Priest song. Despite the stupidity of the claim, the parents clung to it throughout a lengthy trial because it was easier than confronting the hard fact that their sons were obviously suffering from clinical depression that they failed to see or understand. Later, we saw the parents of the Columbine High School killers attribute their sons’ murderous behavior to their playing violent video games. And now we see something similar happening with guns. Grief stricken parents deserve our sympathy. But, as Joe the Plumber said, the death of someone’s child doesn’t trump our constitutional rights.
Your grief is real. Your anger is misplaced. This happened because of a decision of a criminal, not an inanimate object.
Do you care more about your money or your kids? your kids, of course. then why is it we see it fit to guard our MONEY with guns ( armed bank gaurds, armored cars with armed drivers, etc.,) but not our children? The days were we could say something like “oh well no one is going to shoot up a school so we don’t need armed guards like at banks” are over and we all know it. its an incredible double standard. you KNOW an armed guard WILL stop a bad guy in a bank ( WHERE GUNS AREN’T ALLOWED ) yet many people display a cognitive dissonance of magnanimous proportions when it comes to applying that logic to preventing gunmen from entering schools and taking away what we REALLY care about. And no, armed guards do not stop EVERY bank robber, they can’t. There are videos on the internet of bank robbers walking into bank, RIGHT PAST THE ARMED GUARD ON DUTY and robbing the bank. As you can infer, the robbery doesn’t go well for people that stupid. There is no rule/law that is going to stop every threat all the time. Each instance needs isolated analysis. We live in a time where people will do ANYTHING to get attention. Chris Mercer even said one of his main motives was ATTENTION. and he got it. And as we all know, if someone is truly determined to do something, it is almost impossible to stop them. So all we can do is make the end goal such a high cost and so difficult to accomplish, they won’t think they can. WORDS ON PAPER DO NOT STOP THESE PEOPLE. SIGNS ON DOORS DO NOT STOP THESE PEOPLE. YOUR EMOTIONAL DURESS DOES NOT STOP THESE PEOPLE. Guns stop these people.
The money isn’t guarded by guns. The loss of money is worthless at the level of individual theft (and its FDIC insured). Its just that history has shown that some people will kill the bank tellers, managers, guards, customers, janitors, children, armored car operators, etc for money….. These poor folks certainly have a right to armed self defense, same as you…… Why do you think most banks/stores have a “let them have the money” policy?
Condolences for your loss but maybe if you took your self outside of your comfortable little bubble you’d blame the guy who shot your nephew and not millions of peaceful, law abiding folks. Just sayin.
Welcome to the human race. Human nature can be quite ugly and animalistic, can’t it? Be mad at me here in a far away state because I have a different view than yours if you must. But don’t expect your rage and hatred of us to change human nature and thus this world for the better. I am not the lowest common denominator. That was the person that killed your nephew. If you are serious about advancing the human race, try to come closer to me, rather than indulge your rage and hatred bringing yourself closer to “like butta baby”. Your loss is tragic and many morn for the lose of any good person. We can rise to new heights together or we can sink to the level of the lowest common denominator. I know which what I want to go. That choice is up to you which way we will go.
Everyone, read GMan’s comment. Let Suzette have her grief. Oppose her in the statehouses, but not here.
I disagree. She has made a public statement blaming law abiding citizens bearing inanimate objects for the murder of a relative by a psychopathic predator.
Making reasonable, logical and factual statements showing that she is being irrational, illogical, hateful, bigoted and delusional is perfectly appropriate.
So sorry for your loss. Tragedy strikes in many ways, and takes many forms. Sadly, the criminal mind knows no boundaries when it comes to depravity and immorality – and there’s no effective way to regulate the criminal mind and its creative evil, except by removing criminals from the streets. Criminals can never be disarmed, because they are always ahead of the law-abiding in the arms race. Ban guns, but criminals still get them. Remove guns from society magically, and crims will have knives while we have whistles.
Tragedy sometimes marks the lives of those of us who promote legally armed self-protection. The case of Suzanna Gratia Hupp in Luby’s diner is a tragically stellar example. Since she didn’t have her concealed carry permit yet, she left her gun in her car while dining with her parents. When a gunman broke in to the diner and started shooting, Hupp had no protection, and watched her parents die before her eyes. A tragedy that would almost certainly have been averted but for the want of a legally held gun.
Had your nephew been armed, it would not likely have changed the outcome of your tragedy. A gun is not a talisman of good or evil, and will not – by itself – offer a guarantee of safety. None of us in the pro-rights movement claim that. But tragedies like your nephews also happen less often in places where punks can’t operate without the risk of being shot themselves by legally armed citizens in lawful self defense.
If you want to do something constructive, give up any crusade against gun owners and put that thought and effort into eliminating what killed your son, violent gang members.
If instead of shooting your son, he ran up and bludgeoned him to death with a bat, would you blame baseball players as the cause of your sons death? Would you call out knife owners if he had been stabbed? The will to commit murder was the basis of your son’s tragic death, how it was carried out makes no difference.
Condolences on your loss, however I’m confused why you have chosen to blame the gun? What if they tackled your nephew and stabbed him to death? You wouldn’t be blaming the existence of knives would you? The real person responsible: “See. Like butta baby…”. This person chose immoral acts to exercise on another and is the one truly responsible. Killing is killing regardless of what they used to accomplish it. You are upset about the existence of guns when you should be upset about the existence of immoral people.
Again, I am very sorry for your loss and can’t fathom what you are going through.
He wasn’t a terrorist?
Then this one is all you, NRA.
Climate Change, are you related to Global Warming? Have you met Ice Age or any of the other planetary anomalies? You are as insincere as your “cause”.
It is so much easier to blame an inanimate object for the ills of society than face the truth that our culture has devolved into chaos. You can try to ban any and all things that terrify you, but until you deal with the person using said object, nothing will change.
You can pretty much blame the NRA for everything…
Sap from the tree in my front yard dirtying up my wife’s SUV; NRA.
Ingrown hair I had to have lanced last year; NRA.
That girl I dated in high school, Stephanie, who, no matter how hard I tried, wouldn’t put out; you guessed it, NRA.
As another poster said below, anyone who blames me for a murder I didn’t commit is vile and despicable such as yourself.
If you are going to blame me for the gun then I will blame you for the thug who committed the act since he is a product of your party and environment that allows him to get away with it. Own it, he is all yours.
Completely nonsensical. Care to discuss? Didn’t think so.
Sorry to hear about your loss. Perhaps it might be good to meet with families who have dealt with the loss of fallen soldiers in battle for the US armed forces. Many died a senseless death as well, defending our rights. Many families have lost several family members in battle as well. They have to live with the tragedy and horror that they brought a wonderful life into this world only to lose it to a senseless tragedy. I’m sure they ask the same questions. Why did it have to be my son or daughter who was killed? Many soldiers are horribly maimed and deformed now because of battle. Ask them who are still survivors if they would fight to death to defend our rights once again. Because these are the bravest men and women who live among us. I don’t have any relatives who died in battle so I can’t tell you what it feels like, but I do volunteer my time helping injured soldiers return to a normal life. Take some consolation in the fact that many are survivors and remember the wonderful child you have.
Signed , A mom
who has a daughter in law enforcement who I worry about my kid just as much as you do
In my opinion the friction between both sides of the debate comes down to simple world view.
I am willing to bet that every single law abiding citizen in North America would be willing to part with their firearms,…all of them, If it would actually stop all murder from happening.
we don’t believe that that will happen. even an idiot can build a simple gun, make powder and a crude projectile. There is violence in the hearts of some people. Evil is real. And if there are not enough good people to stand up against this evil, all will live in a society of fear.
Peace and security are an illusion, there have always been wolves at the door. There always will be. We can try to ban sticks and stones but in the end it will not matter until we stand up against the injustice in the legal system and deal appropriately with mental health issues.
Until that time, they who would tread on the snake need to learn that it is not worth the fangs.
“I am willing to bet that every single law abiding citizen in North America would be willing to part with their firearms,…all of them, If it would actually stop all murder from happening.”
I wouldn’t. I enjoy the outdoors. There are critters out there that can only be dispatched with a firearm.
It’s also a cold, stark fact that some people will always prey on other people.
As my specific Constitutional right, I choose to not become prey.
I’m sorry for your loss. I’m sorry there are people in the world who are predators, who look for the vulnerable and have no respect for life or fear of opposition. I would not deprive you, your nephew, or anyone the means to defend themselves or remove from society something the predator may see as a threat to themselves and dampen their ambitions.
The only thing “special” about this particular tragedy is that this person is allowing themselves to be used as a political pawn by unscrupulous people who wish nothing more than to disarm everyone, thereby ensuring even more tragic deaths.
When my father died of cancer, it was a tragedy to our family. It was tragic, because my father did not get to see his grandkids grow up nor get to meet his great grandchildren.
However, that tragedy was our tragedy and not something to be paraded in order to gain more public sympathy.
At some point, every family experiences tragedy. It is part of life and family. A tragedy is not supposed to be used for personal or political gain.
Suzette,
I weep with you. I am angered that we, as a nation, have allowed things like gainful employment, fatherhood, moral integrity, personal responsibility and parental responsibility to disappear from entire neighborhoods. I’m frustrated that we, as a nation, continue to dump money into such cesspools which helps them proliferate and produce more people like the kid who shot your nephew.
We have allowed generations of kids to grow up in these morally vacuous places. Lacking the most basic understanding of good or evil, they prey upon others with all the moral conscience of a bobcat killing a baby lamb.
And we have made matters worse (in certain areas) by restricting the right of the common citizen to defend himself from such predators with the most effective tools available. And when those predators do their thing, we fail to incarcerate them long enough to prevent a repeat performance.
We humans have been killing once another since Kane took a rock and smashed his brother’s skull. Evil will always be among us. Evil people will use any tool available. The best we can do is make sure we have access to those same tools for self-defense, and ensure that those who commit evil are denied the opportunity to do it again.
Suzette,
Sorry to hear about the senseless murder of Neil.
But I am not so sorry that I will accept blame for it. And that is what you’re asking me to do. You’re asking me (and millions of others) to give up my rights and my property to somehow atone for the actions of some near-animal who decided Neil needed to die. It was his act. Not the gun’s act, and not my act. Please, place the blame where it belongs.
When we experience trauma to such a powerful degree, our brain’s have a difficult time in processing it in a healthy way. We attach blame and reason to people, places, and ideas around the event to make sense of such a senseless and horrible act. Inherently we know that we are virtually powerless over evil people. There is nothing we can say or do to make a sociopath feel empathy. For whatever reason Neil’s aunt is blaming guns for her nephews death, because that is the only way it makes sense in her mind. Society as taught us not to blame races, culture, or other humanistic identities because that makes us bigots. She could just as easily started blaming black people or inner city culture for this tragedy. Instead her brain chose the black, scary looking, demonized, inanimate object as the reason why all of this has happened. This gives her an opportunity to rid of the world of such an evil, to play her little part in making sure this doesn’t happen again, so that she feels some control over an uncontrollable, traumatic event. It’s not much different than when a little kid blames themselves for their parents divorce. It’s the only way that makes sense to a child. As our brain matures, that prefrontal cortex’s need to search and find answers to explain the unexplainable shifts based on life experience. Knowing what’s “wrong” with us doesn’t fix us. For most of us though it takes the blinders off so we can process the irrational hatred, pain, or fear in a healthy way. Unfortunately, this woman is just as clueless as the misguided child who doesn’t understand divorce. It’s hard for me to have strong feelings about someone so naive and lost. I pray for their happiness and wish them the best. Then I don’t succumb to the same emotional fate as their misguided soul’s.
“. .Unfortunately, this woman is just as clueless as the misguided child who doesn’t understand divorce. . .”
Yep. +1000
That is a point I have not heard before. To paraphrase, The reason the anti-gun people, generally progressives, blame the gun is because to blame the perpetrator would be to brand themselves a bigot,or even worse, a racist.
Plus, it reinforces the cult of victim hood, that the person is never responsible for their actions.
Didn’t happen. She’s lying. Everyone knows that DC is a gun free zone. DC is exactly the kind of gun free paradise Suzette and ETFGS want imposed on the rest of the country. However, if ‘gun violence’ could happen in DC then that would completely undermine ETFGS’s whole mantra. So they should probably put a little more thought into their lies.
BTW, the ‘news report’ links to a ‘neighborhood blog’ posted by someone calling himself ‘Prince of Petworth’. They have a link to a supposed news story but the link leads to an invalid URL. Sounds fishy, but still, either this is a made up story or the story itself only demonstrates the futility of gun control.
We can’t know the depth of your own sorrow, and can’t comprehend the actions of the killer of your nephew. We don’t blame you for wanting to do ‘something,’ or even for for blaming the gun for the murder. After all, only a gun could have allowed the killer to strike Neil down from a distance.
Humans, particularly those faced with overwhelming grief or sorrow, are drawn to simple, understandable solutions. But for many difficult problems, the simple answers that make us feel better and stronger and smarter, are the wrong ones. Where you seem to see a “gun problem,” I suggest that you try to look at the bigger picture. The killer of your nephew was an incomprehensibly broken individual. So broken that he couldn’t or wouldn’t see the wrong that he was committing. Or if he did, wouldn’t or couldn’t stop himself. This isn’t just dysfunctional families, or drugs, or mental illness, although it may be all of those. Its something much deeper and complex and far more difficult to comprehend. Simply focusing on the gun is a disservice to the problems that we actually face, and does nothing for the memory of your nephew.
So you can hate guns if you want to, or hate gun owners if you have to. We understand why that’s so. But please don’t think that outlawing guns, much as that might make you feel like you’re doing ‘something,’ would do anything meaningful for our problems. Our problems are bigger than that, and more complicated, and more difficult.
Oh look. The murderer is a thug piece of shit with a history: http://homicidewatch.org/2012/12/14/42-year-prison-sentence-for-eric-foreman-in-shooting-of-neil-godleski/
I suppose wishing for the magical eradication of guns (why not all weapons including hands and feet I don’t know) is not much different than the wishing of a deceased loved one returning to life.
They’re both irrational, emotional and impossible.
Merry Christmas
The words are easy. Even she blames the murderer for his actions. Rather than lay blame on the tool, blame should be placed on those who committed the crime and on those who allowed it to happen through lax enforcement of current laws.
Criminals do not respect the law. No new law will change that. And, honestly, why should they? The law states that teens cannot posess handguns, but what happens when they get caught with them? Nothing unless you count being told they are now not allowed to own a gun they weren’t concerned that they couldn’t already own in the first place. When they kill? They are paroled and let out early.
The solution is as easy as it is time proven. Enforce current laws to show people that you are serious, otherwise nobody will believe you are serious about new ones.
Sorry sweetie, your nephew didn’t die of “gun violence”. The gun was not violent. Hell I can tell you that it operated as smoothly as any other mechanical device. Neil died of acute exposure to murderous thugs in the absence of situational awareness and personal discretion about where, when and how he traveled. He did travel that way apparently regularly and with apparently no idea of about what kind of folks hang on on his route or practicing selectivity about the environments he was willing to drop himself into. Unfortunately he paid a high price for living as a free man in a free society. That’s one of the risks of freedom, everyone else is free too.
The actual murderer is now off the street (along with his particular gun) and the rest of the country wishes to thank your nephew for his sacrifice which netted the result of having one more thug off the street. It’s a shame that Neil had to go about his crusade to remove thugs from the street one-by-one by going out gallivanting around as unarmed bait but we’re all nonetheless thankful for his dedication and sacrifice.
As far as the presence of a gun in the hands of a criminal: Again, sorry to say but would you rather that our thug cut your boy up with a machete or a carpet knife? How about an IED? A baseball bat? I know, a lemon soaked flensing knife. No no no, I have it: A CAR. He could have just run him over repeatedly with a car. That would have sucked less for everyone right? The mechanism a murderer chooses to deal death is irrelevant because they’ll find something.
Your loss is a loss but it’s not my problem or fault.
If you were to focus your efforts and attention on understanding who killed your relative and why, you will be better equipped to make policy recommendations that will remedy whatever is so broken about these teens that they murder.
In fact, you will probably find that the pro-gun rights community will support you, but we will not allow you to extract a token penance from us to satisfy your desire for catharsis. We did not make that teen the person he is and we didn’t give him any reasons to kill your relative, and we did not arm him. If you choose to to make us your fight, you will not get what you think you want right now, you will not get your catharsis, you will not gain any understanding of who and why did this, and you will not be able to contribute anything back to society to fix whatever was broken that caused this to happen.
So are you going to choose us as your strongest ally in a meaningful effort or will you choose us as your strongest enemy in a token effort?
I’ll tell you what, I’ll spend the night sleeping in the same room as a gun, and you can spend the night sleeping in the same room as that depraved murderer. We can compare notes in the morning over which of the two is the problem.
Still don’t understand the pass given to the callous killer. How did gun enthusiasts put the gun in the hand of the murderer? How did gun enthusiasts make him point the gun at a complete stranger and pull the trigger? I would focus on the killer and the circumstances under which he was brought up.
“My officemate was gunned down by the DC snipers so I understand your grief. However, it taught me that there are malevolent people in this world and you have to take the necessary steps to potent your life. Sometimes that means you need a firearm.”
Is their any reason believe, than in a world identical to our own save the existence of firearms, that this kid wouldn’t have been senselessly killed with some other implement.
This society needs to start placing the blame on the actor not the equipment; otherwise you excuse the actor and place it on a talisman.
No words for her, you really can’t help someone who recognizes that someone is a “savage” but still decides the blame goes to completely uninvolved people who own a particular inanimate object. I even expect she realizes that the murderer would be no less “savage” if he had been holding a knife instead of a gun. It just doesn’t matter to her, she still thinks she has to reserve some of her hate for a piece of steel and for other completely beningn people who happen to own similar pieces of steel.
Its simply the most tragic form of confirmation bias.
I know all too well that this is a common reaction to devastating loss. You need to blame something (or someone) so guns become the focus. And while my heart goes out to that shattered family, their grief makes them irrational. As mean as it sounds, those who’ve lost loved ones to gun violence are the last we should listen to while making policy.
His anger is misplaced. He should print up a dozen pictures of the killer, buy a dozen cartons of smokes, and stop by the prison to visit some other residents.
Somebody would get the job done.
Why would I bother to engage with anyone as vile and despicable as Suzette? And yes, anyone who blames me for a murder I didn’t commit is vile and despicable.
+10,371.
She should blame the depraved thug who killed him, and maybe the rest of the thug’s family (to include his gang…).
Next thing I know, she’s going to be blaming me for the Muslim terror attackers/jihadists in San Bernardino.
Oh wait, they’re already doing that.
…and the horse she rode in on.
John
I’m sorry for your loss. Believe it or not, there is common ground here. Gun rights supporters loathe and detest these criminals as much as you do. We don’t want guns in the hands of people who misuse them. We don’t want guns in the hands of people who use them for evil deeds. Unfortunately, there’s simply no amount of laws that can guarantee that guns won’t fall into the wrong hands. Strict Washington D.C. gun laws didn’t prevent your nephew from being a victim. All we want is exactly what you wished your nephew could’ve experienced on that tragic day – to get home safely. I’m not big into motives. I don’t care why that animal murdered your nephew. I don’t want to know what series of life events one has to experience to ultimately decide to take the life of a random person on a street. I just want to know, if I happen to come across someone who’s hellbent on causing me or my family harm, that I have a fighting chance to protect my loved ones and myself. This is why I own firearms. This is why I will never give them up.
As seen on social media – “I stand behind you in line at the store with a smile on my face…and a gun under my shirt and you are none the wiser, yet you are safer for having me next to you. I won’t shoot you. My gun won’t pull it’s own trigger. It is securely holstered with the trigger covered. It can’t just go off. However, rest assured that if a lunatic walks into the grocery store and pulls out a rifle, I will draw my pistol and protect myself and my family and therefore protect you and your family. I may freeze up. I may piss my pants. I may get shot before I can pull the trigger…but, I won’t die in a helpless blubbering heap on the floor begging for my life or my child’s life. I won’t be that victim. I choose not to be. As for you, I don’t ask you to carry a gun. If you are not comfortable, then please don’t. But I would like to keep my right to choose to not be a helpless victim. There is evil in the world and since evil has a gun, I have one too…”
I am deeply sorry for the loss you have experienced.
We don’t blame the storm or the earthquake, but for some reason we blame the gun.
I hope you find peace someday. I’ll seek it through preparation and pray I do not need it.
Robert DEMANDS we keep our replies “civil” when responding to an un-civil and insulting post. Keep driving on Robert.
Yep
“Feeling sorry for a lost one yet you are trying disarm me so that I can experience the same loss as you did? To make your prayer worth it, I’ll take a carbine(a type of short rifles) class this weekend just to make sure. Removing guns from the society would not have prevented the death of your nephew. All it would have taken then is a solid whack at the brain stem by a hatchet, available at any public location for free. Gun owners are stained by the criminal partly because of people like you who accuse us or our guns, instead of the actual crime. So basically now you are blaming the victim, which liberals are not supposed to tolerate. You did not burst my bubble. You made my reality even more real, where I have an obligation to protect myself and my family, or even you, who hate us and some inanimate object. No one, has the right to tell me how I protect me and mine. I feel sorry for your nephew, as the lesson written on his tombstone is not learnt by you, who are trying to impose on others as if losing somebody dear grants the right to preach.
About 10 years ago when I was still living in Chicago, a friend of an acquaintance of mine was beaten by a gang about 4 blocks from my house in Lincoln Square. It’s a nice section of town. The victim was alone. Not involved in a crime. Walking home. He was beset by 8 individuals who kicked him into a coma. He survived, but his brain is so severely damaged that he can no longer communicate and lives in a facility. His family suffers, too, as yours does. One of the perps was convicted of assault and got 5 years in prison, if I recall. The victim wasn’t killed. The perp didn’t use a gun. And I hear the family is bitter about the sentence. The kid is now free, and their son will never be functional again. But they can’t blame a gun. Or the NRA. Or gun owners. All they have is that the universe placed their son in the same place at the same time as these Grade-A Assholes. If he had left 5 minutes before or 5 minutes later, or turned down a different street, he would be enjoying the holidays with them.
I understand that you think a gun made it easy for a kid to kill your nephew. But it seems that the kid shot at your nephew a bunch of times and missed. Your nephew fell off his bike, and as he lay there the kid walked over and shot him point blank. Your nephew crossed paths with some Grade-A Assholes and died. We never plan on running into Grade-A Assholes. But it happens. The universe sucks like that. And if it happens to me, I have a gun to make the odds of me not dying and not being brain dead a little bit better. Maybe I still die or get beaten, but a gun gives me a better chance than facing a criminal with my bare hands.
You can hate guns and me and everyone else that owns guns. That’s ok. If that’s how you deal with your nephew’s death, I accept that. But in return, I just ask that you hear me and what I fear and how I live my life. I don’t want to hurt anyone with my guns. I take steps to minimize the chances that happens. But I will fight back if the universe decides today is going to be my sucky day.
In her grief, the lady wants guns to un-exist in totality. I get it, I’m sorry for her and the family.
In reality the government can pass all the anti-gun laws and confiscate all the guns it can and that thug who shot her boy would still have a gun and likely still have shot her boy. At least if good people can own guns there is a chance they can defend themselves.
I am sorry for the loss of your nephew, but do not hold me responsible
for his death.
His killer is in prison for 42 years, justice is served.
He was killed by someone with no regard for life not gun violence
which really is just gun involved violence.
My condolences and i wish you a merry christmas.
You shouldn’t blame firearms any more than someone blames the car used when someone kills another person in a negligent fashion on the road.
DC already has among the strictest firearms laws in the country and yet somehow this was still able to happen.
Mexico has far stricter firearms laws than we do in the US and yet people are killed by criminals far more frequently than they are in the US.
The UK has among the strictest firearms laws in the world and yet has weekly shootings now and also thousands of stabbing attacks annually.
I fail to see how blaming a tool or people who own those tools helps with the tragic death of your nephew.
Based on the report of murder, this thug could have just as easily pushed the victim as he rode by, causing him to crash and possibly die from that crash alone or from being subsequently run over by a passing motor vehicle. No gun needed.
I have no words to console you, and I can’t relate to the pain you’re experiencing.
No one else is responsible for your nephew’s murder, but the murderer himself. Placing blame on the tool and not the murderer excuses the murderer’s behavior. Not coming to grips with the reality of who is responsible for this horrendous behavior is obviously, by your own description, causing you great emotional pain.
I strongly suggest you seek professional help. Go get counseling, do it individually or as a family, but please, please, go get help, because you obviously need it.
Suzzette,
Our thoughts and prayers are with you on your loss.
I’m also a surviving family member of loss due to violence.
I’ve lost family due to drunk drivers, due to the slow violence of ASSAULT cigarettes.
Also to the violence of asbestos and yes the violence incurred by people that only had murder in their hearts.
I have loved and lossed some very dear to me and yet each family members (a few that fought through WW 2) were patriots in love with this country.
Not one would blame the car,cigarettes,asbestos, or gun that ultimately led to their passing.
They either accepted responsibility or knew that when they took an oath to protect their country that they may not make it back.
Blaming a weapon may seem like a sensible thing for some but the beast that took your nephew could have easily used anything else, and let us not forget that he was captured by law enforcement (good guys with guns)
We will never stop random violence, someone intent on committing random murder only needs that next victim. A predator is a killing machine and will use anything avaible.
So despite your need to villify a weapon…..the person behind it is really the problem.
Please shift your anger to the real problem, random killers and bad guys in general ,objects and or choices we make in our daily life that can snuff a life out in a blink of an eye.
Once again p rayers for your family.
My sympathy evaporated as soon as she blamed gun owners-rather like Allison Parker’s daddy dancing in her blood instead of blaming the vile shooter. Don’t wanna’ sound racisss…
My nephew died, do I blame the truck for rolling over and crushing his skull, do I scream, “Ban all trucks! Confiscation of all tucks will save our children” ? Do I blame the alcohol the driver imbibed as the cause of the worlds woe or mine? Do I scream, “Ban all alcohol, confiscation of civilian owned alcohol is the only answer!”?
No, I don’t because the driver was at fault at precisely the moment he decided to not have a designated driver for my nephew and him. I know exactly the pain she feels, but guess what, so does the rest of the world.
Screaming about the machines used and their being in a persons possession in the commission of a crime instead of that exact persons role as sole operator, is blaming the gun for operating instead of blaming the killer for killing.
I am so tired of having to justify truth to people here in California, because they all start mouthing off about guns instead of the criminals who use them in their crimes. Without the criminal the gun is just metal, so why blame an inanimate object?
Would you feel better if your kid was killed by a drunk driver or a moron who was texting?
Great Grandmother was killed by a drunk driver.
Had a sales rep shot and killed by gang members for an initiation right.
Had a friend who had a screwdriver stuck in his skull over drugs and died.
Had a friend killed by a snow plow.
Had a couple friends who died after a car ran over them.
Had a couple of friends die of drug overdose.
Dangerous world out there and DC is not known to be a safe place in spite of all the gun laws.
Indiana Tom, no offense but I don’t think I want to be your friend!
Sorry, poor attempt at humor. I seriously mean no offense and am sorry for your many losses.
Hmmm. I Googled his name and discovered that he was murdered by Eric Foreman. I then Googled both of their names and found this website:
https://blackfootsoldier.wordpress.com/2015/01/30/relive-the-neil-godleski-reparations-protest-reparations-offender-neil-godleskis-just-desserts-come-home-to-roost-norwalk-dc-black-foot-soldiers-condemn-life-family-of-crimina/
A young black male murdered your nephew and then a black blog celebrated it by basically saying that it was revenge for slavery.
You’re blaming gun rights for the savage behavior of black people.
http://i.imgur.com/phQ99G4.gif
Maybe you should reassess who’s more responsible for your nephew’s death: the NRA or anti-racism libtards like you.
When my White best friend was savagely murdered by a pack of 15 Mestizo illegal immigrants, that helped to wake me up from my far-left, anti-racist, and anti-gun views. Rather than doubling down on my liberal stupidity, I left the Left and bought a shotgun to defend my home. You apparently went in exactly the opposite direction because you’re a dangerously delusional idiot.
If you really want to reduce gun violence, then you should support banning black and “Hispanic” people.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/06/nypd-report-details-crime_n_1862771.html
A global trend:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate
What? Am I supposed to seriously respond to an anonymous poster who claims to be family of a random drive by four years ago?
We have seen Everytown, MDA, and Brady dance in the blood of real victims, and mis-lead real victims to the point they have lost lawsuits on their own nickel, duped by the gun-grabbers, who danced in their relatives blood.
No, suzette, if you are really suzette, if you haven’t figured out how you are being used by the Left, who cares nothing for you, then I cant help you with a comment in a gun blog.
All I can say is deepest sympathy, and my prayers for your family that you find peace for your loss, ma’am.
Foo Dog, the case was real. Interestingly, the family had filed a 20 million dollar wrongful-death lawsuit against the city for allowing the killer, a known gang member with a propensity for violence, “to evade supervision and detention” (see http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/5/murder-victims-family-sues-dc-over-dyrs-failures/?page=all). Although I was unable to find the disposition of the lawsuit, I imagine their lawsuit ran afoul of the precedent of Castle Rock v. Gonzales. What we’re seeing here is the ‘denial’ stage of grief as they struggle to come to grips with the fact that the civil government has no specific duty to protect individual citizens from two-legged predators. This is followed pretty quickly by anger: “Someone must be to blame…Hey, you guys have guns! I’ll blame you! If it weren’t for your pesky refusal to be a doormat for evil, greedy or amoral people, the shooter would have been an honor roll student giving out footrubs at the nursing home in his free time.”
When people threaten my right to defend my loved ones I stop feeling sorry for them.
F*ck this guy. What if the gang of scumbags had stabbed or beating his relative to death? Happens all the time.
Would it have been OK if he had been hacked apart with a machete? No? Then why are you blaming the inanimate objects? Blame the *** who shot him, not the tool, and especially not the millions of gun owners who DIDN’T shoot him.
I am very sorry for your loss. Now, why are you using your nephew’s tragic death as a political club to beat innocent gun owner’s rights to death with?
I suspect that I’m not quite getting the whole “respectful” thing, am I. A pity, that.
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