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A Tragedy Almost 10 Years Ago


Tiger

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Now, I do not remember the exact date, but it would have been 10 years ago in April of the upcoming year. I was a junior in high school, and I will never forget this. Danny was only 14. He was hunting with his 13-year-old friend. His friend's rifle jammed. Yes, it jammed. What happened next was nothing short of tragic. The rifle discharged and hit little Danny in the heart. He died at the hospital soon after. It's worth noting that I went to a very small school. Just to give people a general idea of just how small, it is likely that there are almost as school-aged children in the neighborhood where I now reside than were in the entire school. Thus, the junior high and high school were together, and we all had the same teachers. Everyone was shocked. I will never forget the funeral. It was held at the gym of the school. To this day (as far as I know) there is a memorial to Danny on the water tower north of Amsterdam, Missouri. I never remember being so sad in my life. Here was a boy. He was 14, yet he looked like he was only 10 or 11. It's proof that we live in a f**ked up world. He should be alive today. He would be 23 years old now, but instead his remains are in a cemetery.

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I understand and share your grief.But now, 10 years elder, I suppose you could come to a conclusion about this painful event :

how to prevent such young kids to use a rifle, without the plain knowledge how to deal with ?

I have nothing against guns and rifles in the hand of young people, but first they should be instructed by adults and controlled when they use it.

Want to see what I mean : see "GhostRyder15's stories".

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Well, they should have had supervision, which may have prevented the tragedy in the first place. They were only 13 and 14 at the time. :(

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This is very tragic...

I'm always shaken by stories like this one. We are in a f*cked up world indeed.

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The first cut is the deepest. When you lose that innocence of death, you will remember its sting even though you will see more and more of it every day.

 

When a child to sees another child die a senseless and purposeless death, it is a blunt and brutal reminder of their own mortality at a time of their life when they feel immortal.

 

I feel for the kid who accidentally shot his friend. That is burden that will stay with him for the rest of his life. Sometimes it is harder on the survivors of a tragedy than it was for those that were cut down. Survivors have to carry that knowledge and guilt and will never stop asking why.

 

If any good could come from such a tragedy, perhaps it is that parents were made more aware that allowing the use of guns by inexperienced youths can be tragic. Maybe some young people were reminded that they are not immortal.

 

You can never know what the reason or the purpose was, speaking as a person spent a long time at the bottom of a bottle with survivors guilt, it's best not to dwell on it.

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