Survivor Stories: Safely Securing Our Future

I aim to make the introduction to this post quite brief, as I intend for this edition of "Survivor Stories" to be solely focused on a piece of writing that I deem to be very important. In fact, it was this piece of writing that inspired me to create this very website.

Last year, I wrote an original oratorical piece for my junior year Forensic Speech season. I allowed to write my piece on any topic that was deeply, immeasurably important to me. I immediately knew what I had to write my speech about.

This speech truly paved the way for my current involvement in gun violence awareness/prevention. Without the time and research put into this speech, I would not be where I am today. With that being said, I am proud to present an excerpt from "Safely Securing Our Future: A Promise To A New Generation," written by yours truly!

*Some aspects such as personal information, names, and locations have been censored or taken out for personal safety reasons.

On April 13, 2021, a small newspaper published an article about a recent armed robbery in Florida. The local police reported that a trio of 16-year-olds allegedly broke into a home on 12th Street South. One pointed a gun at a 14-year-old occupant and threatened to shoot her if she alerted anyone in the home.

We read about, watch, and listen to stories of violent gun crimes like this almost everyday. They are so common that we’ve become habituated to the violence. The emotional impact on us is lost.

I speak to you today from personal experience. My name is Charlotte, and I was the occupant involved in this story.

I was 14 years old at the time and approaching my middle school graduation. A school break created an opportunity to take a short family vacation. My extended family, whom I had not seen in several months, traveled to Florida.

One night, while the rest of my family was sleeping, I woke up and walked downstairs to the kitchen to grab a glass of water. There was no way I could’ve anticipated what was about to happen to me: something that could have ended my life and devastated my family forever.

That very night, three men entered the rental home through the unlocked front door. As I was filling up my glass of water, I heard sounds on the stairs. I thought someone woke up and was going to join me in the kitchen. As I turned around to grab my glass, the group barged into the kitchen. One of the men quickly pointed a handgun at my forehead. He held it there and said nine words I will never forget: “If you scream, I am going to kill you.” Once the other two intruders had explored the first floor and created a commotion, they quickly left the house, leaving me with my life - as well as a whole lot to think about. It all happened in less than six minutes.

Later I learned how my underage intruders illegally obtained that gun. They had stolen it during a previous home invasion. It wasn’t difficult. You see, there was no gun lock on the gun. It was not securely stored in a locked gun case. It was easily accessible to anyone.

And that’s the exact problem. Guns that are not properly stored are the proximate cause of thousands of violent assaults, deaths, accidental child shootings, suicides, and school shootings. Secure gun storage is a simple, relatively inexpensive solution to these tragic harms.

Gun ownership is deeply rooted in American culture. Unfortunately, so is unsafe gun storage. According to the gun census conducted by Philip Cook, professor of public policy at Duke University, there are currently about 377 million guns in circulation in the United States. If you do the math, that’s 42 million more guns than people. Today, I’d like to examine three preventable harms of unsafe gun storage: unintentional shootings by children, suicide, and stolen weapons. Each mentioned sector of gun violence illustrates how safe weapon storage can truly make the difference between life and death.

According to the National Firearms Survey, about 4.6 million children under the age of 18 lived in homes with loaded and unlocked firearms in 2015. In 2021, a Harvard survey found that 36% of gun owners with children leave their firearms unlocked in their homes. Children are naturally curious. Every year hundreds of children gain access to an unloaded gun in a dresser drawer, under a bed, or hidden in a closet. All too often, they find that gun and shoot themselves or someone else. By not properly securing guns, we are failing not only our children, but the future of our country.

Consider the example of 4-year-old Rosalyn Taylor-Rolle of Miami. Rosalyn’s 3-year-old brother found a bag in their home that belonged to his mother’s boyfriend. Last November, the toddler couldn’t resist reaching in to explore what was inside. There he found an unlocked, loaded handgun. While handling the gun, he accidentally shot his sister in the forehead. Rosalyn’s mother, Krystal, called the police. Rosalyn was transported to the Ryder Trauma Center. After fighting for her life for an entire week, the young girl died from her gunshot wound. Her death illustrates how quickly unsafe gun storage can take the life of an innocent child – deaths like Rosalyn’s should not have to happen.

A second preventable harm stemming from improper gun storage is suicide. The Harvard School of Public Health tells us that suicides make up over 60% of gun deaths. They also found that access to a firearm is a major risk factor for suicide. The success of a suicide attempt depends on the lethality of the method used. And guns are very, very lethal: 90% of gun suicide attempts end in death. Secure gun storage laws won’t eliminate all suicides, but they will significantly reduce the risk. Preventing easy accessibility to an unlocked, loaded firearm could create the time and space to prevent a suicide attempt.

A third preventable harm stemming from unsecured gun storage is the issue of stolen weapons. Weapons not securely stored are an inviting target for theft by criminals and those not old enough to purchase them legally. In my case, the gun used on the night of the attack was a stolen firearm. The gun was improperly stored by the owner of a house nearby. This house had been broken into prior to my encounter. According to the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, more than 1 million guns were stolen from private citizens from 2017 to 2021. Some are stolen by teenagers from members of their own family and used to carry out school shootings. The National Institute of Justice found that over 80% of mass shooters at K-12 schools stole guns from family members. School shootings, armed robberies, and several other gun-related crimes are often the result of stolen weapons.

In 2008, the United States Supreme Court held in District of Columbia v. Heller that the Second Amendment establishes an individual right to possess a firearm and use it for lawful purposes. However, people often forget a fundamental principle of our country: constitutional rights and liberties imply duties and responsibilities. This is a maxim of democracy that is taught in virtually every high school government class in the country. Everyone who exercises their Second Amendment right by gun ownership has a duty and responsibility to store that weapon safely and securely.

The American Pediatric Association lists the requirements for secure gun storage: all guns should be unloaded, secured with a gun lock, and stored in a locked gun case. Ammunition must be stored in a separate locked container. Only 12 states currently have some form of gun storage safety laws. I propose today that the remaining state legislatures pass and enforce secure gun storage laws mandating these provisions. With these enforcements in place, we can properly protect children. We can prevent careless deaths. We can make necessary change, but only if we have the courage to begin with.