Our only son, F. Gaines Whitington, was shot and killed on May 29, 2015, in Memphis, Tennessee, when he was 18 years old. He had just graduated from Memphis University School and was headed to college with great potential. It was all lost to the world on that fateful day in a senseless carjacking robbery.
We continue efforts to change the course of youth violence, of American gun violence, where every mass shooting seems more tolerated. Every time I hear about gun deaths or another mass shooting, my body responds in kind and remembers May 29 as if it had just happened. Shaking, I feel with great empathy for the hole left and the gut-wrenching of the survivors.