Amaury Abreu
Gun violence is a hot topic right now and people in different political spectrums have opinions as to why the issue of gun violence exist in the first place and what should be done about it. The reality is that when you are in a moment where there is a shooting or the threat of one, the conversation in your head is not about your political perspective on what is happening in that moment but rather one of survival.
My wife and I were at the Benjamin Franklin Parkway for the 4th of July concert and fireworks. Some of our friends were there too, we all were enjoying a good time until the fireworks started and then everything changed.
When I was about to tell my wife that we should leave before everyone else started heading back home that is when we saw a whole crowd of people running towards our direction. In that moment all we knew is that we had to run. Many families with children and older couples were in that event and got hit by other people running away from the threat making things even worst.
A horrible feeling from that experience is that when everyone is running one does not know where the threat is really coming from. I was asking myself, is it far enough that we can run or is it too close that moving would become an instant death sentence? My wife and I decided to run as we saw more people running away.
Once we got home and were able to decompress, we realized that we just experienced one of the craziest nights of our lives. We had conversations about our own security and how to make sure we do not find ourselves in a situation like that again, all of this because we were affected to our core.
To put things into perspective, when you are in a life-or-death situation, your political opinion about guns does not matter because all you can think about is survival, now, with that thought in mind, how can we go from thinking about survival to thinking how we can enjoy events where the threat of a mass shooting is not looming in our heads? The answer to that I leave to you.
Author: Amaury Abreu
