September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month.  Read and share stories to honor survivors whose loved ones died by gun suicide.

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Anonymous

“Run, Hide, Fight.”

Those were the words I read on my phone as I heard pop after pop coming from two buildings away. All at once, it clicked in my brain what was happening — that I was a part of a school shooting.

My first instinct was to call my mom. Being an out-of-state student at Michigan State University, the phone was the only real comfort I had. For four hours I cried in my closet, clutching my pepper spray and hoping my walls were thick enough to stop any bullets coming my way.

I still can’t go in that closet because any time I do, I remember how I thought my sister may hear me dying on the phone. I thought I would never see my friends again as building after building was called out on the police scanner.

I spent my entire childhood telling myself it wouldn’t happen to me. We practiced drill after drill in the wake of Sandy Hook and Parkland. Now, the only way I sleep at night is by telling myself it won’t happen to my sister, because I can’t say that about myself anymore.

Reacting shows support for gun violence survivors.

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