Personal Gun Story

About 29 years ago when my daughter was in 7th grade, she came home from school and told me one of her friends had gotten in to her parent's safe, taken their handgun, and was bringing it to school. This girl also had a list of people she hated and wanted to hurt. I didn't know what to do. It seemed so improbable, and her parents were prominent physicians in our town, whom I thought unlikely to own a gun. We didn't know anyone who had a gun, or so we thought. After a few days of my daughter insisting this girl was indeed bringing the gun to school, we contacted the principal. We were told these were unsubstantiated allegations, and they would not call the parents, investigate, or intervene in any way. That night I called the parents and said," is it possible that your daughter has taken your gun from your safe?" The husband told me that was impossible as their gun was in their safe with a code the girl did not know. Then I heard him yell to his wife to check the safe, a scream that the gun was gone, and the phone abruptly hung up. Those parents were friends of ours, and they never spoke to us again. Our daughter was ostracized for months for "ratting" out her friend. The school did nothing and never mentioned it again. We paid the price for truth telling.

Looking back, it seems unbelievable that I had any doubts or qualms about standing up for my daughter, not insisting the school take action nor immediately contacting the parents. Granted this was in a time before anyone could have dreamt of a school shooting, but my reaction seems unreal now. My daughter's recollection of this incident is tempered by time, but it is seared in my brain with every school shooting. I often wonder, did we just get lucky? And also how easy it is to fool parents who think they have everything under control, let alone those who are aware of their child's mental health issues, and provide or allow access to guns. This particular girl did have many mental health issues, and committed suicide in her 30's. I have a 6 year old granddaughter now and my heart breaks everyday for her.