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Gillian Field-Antos

In memory of Adam Angel

I have not shared my story on a public forum before, as I still find it so painful to tell. A police officer arrived at my house on February 1, 2014, to inform me of my son Adam’s suicide by gunshot. I fell to the ground and screamed, and the rest is a blur.

I am left with so many unanswered questions. I cannot bear to read the coroner’s report, as the images in my head are already too much to bear. I do not know the details of how he was found, other than that he was in a park, but my vivid nightmares leave me with images of a terrifying scene that rarely leaves my mind.

How and when did he manage to buy a gun? I imagine that he was able to obtain one without too much difficulty. Who sold it to him? How can it be so? He suffered from depression – did he have to fill out any paperwork or pass a background check? I doubt it.

I am so saddened by the fact that we are no longer surprised when yet another mass shooting is reported on the news. To me, there is never a reason for a private citizen to own a gun. Never. It is too easy for a person to enter a school or a place of worship and open fire on a large amount of people, or a chosen final place to obliterate a life, in the case of suicide. Strict gun laws must be passed. Gun ownership is out of control in this country, and we must take action to educate people and to seek the passage of stricter control of gun ownership. Lives are taken so easily, and the numbers on all shooting victims are rising every year. No more — please, no more.

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