Families Reveal The Gun Tragedies That Cost Them Dearly

"The last words he said to his
friend were, 'I can't believe you
shot me.'" -- Ann Marie Crowell whose
son was shot and killed by his friend on
Christmas Eve in 1997
"The boys were playing, and as I
understand it... trying to figure out
if the gun was loaded. And the gun
went off while they were trying to
figure that out, and my brother
was shot in the head and killed
right away." -- Simon Frankel whose
brother was shot and killed at 12 years
old while vacationing on a ranch in
Wyoming in 1973
"The funeral itself, there were over
5,000 people who came." -- Dr.
Danny Dwyer whose five-year-old
grandson was killed by an accidental
gunshot in 2006
These are the voices of family members
who have lost children, grandchildren
and siblings to accidental shootings. To
shed light on the stories of lives
unnecessarily lost by gun violence,
HuffPost Live assembled a panel of
experts and family members affected
by these tragedies.
As noted by Dr. Judith Palfrey, past
President of the American Academy of
Pediatrics and former Executive
Director of President Obama's "Let's
Move" campaign, gun violence "is a
preventable cause of death."
Highlighting the duality of the issue,
Palfrey added, "... gun violence is a very
serious cause of mortality in our
country for children."
As such, gun-related injuries accounted
for 6,570 deaths of children and young
people
(ages 1 to 24) in 2010, according to the
New England Journal of Medicine. When
considering death by gun violence in
the broader spectrum, NEJM cites, "Gun
injuries cause twice as many deaths as
cancer, five times as many as heart
disease, and 15 times as many as
infections."
According to a New York Times review
of child firearm deaths, accidental
shootings occurred roughly twice as
often as records indicate.
These statistics come to life through the
stories of Ann Marie Crowell, Simon
Frankel and Dr. Danny Dwyer, all of
whom have lost loved ones to an
accidental gunshot resulting in fatality. Source huffpost.com
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