Systemic Gun Violence

You may not know that I am an author. I write under the name Andrew Sweet (mostly my real name) and I have published multiple science fiction novels. I’m coming to you this time as a person, speaking one human to another, about what happened to a friend of mine. We often talk about gun violence during our podcast. This is one area where something like 80% (rounded) of Americans agree in common-sense gun legislation, but the Republican Party, to name names, consistently prevent gun legislation from being considered. They claim the 2nd Amendment, but we know better, don’t we?

What’s different now that we’re dedicating another almost entire episode to gun violence? On the weekend of the 15th of July, an author friend and colleague was shot in the face. You see, we authors who aren’t nationally famous (and even some who are actually) go to trade shows and festivals to sell books directly to readers. Jessiee Kwak, author of the Nanshe Chronicles, was at one such event, and upon leaving, she and a fellow author friend Mark Teppo found themselves near enough to a drive-by shooting that a stray bullet hit her eye. Amazingly, she didn’t die from the injury, but now is in relatively good condition working on her recovery. In fact, if you want to learn more of the specifics and help Jessie pay her hospital bills and offset her lost wages from inability to work, you can see her GoFundMe page here.

This is someone who was minding her own business, and gets shot.

That’s the world we’re in now people. Your actions have consequences, and so do your inactions. The more we look, the more difficult it is to fix the issue. We have to vote like this matters. These gun violence victims, like Jessie, are not statistics but are actual live humans suffering the tragic consequences of systemic violence. Go to Jessie’s GoFundMe page and give, and then remember to vote. Because like I said, inaction is action.