We had a vigil for ‘Smiley’ Christmas on Sunday. He was 23 years old, a married father of two children ages 6 and 4 and an usher in his church. A week ago he was shot to death in a trash-strewn, vacant lot shortly after 1am. At the vigil we also remembered three other men who had been shot and killed in the month of January.
In the first 25 days of this new year, our community lost four young men to guns. Last year we had 22 homicides in our medium-sized city. Of those, seventeen were gun deaths and five were shot by one man- a convicted felon - who had an illegal gun. One gun, five deaths.
We have to ask, “Where did the gun come from?” The illegal gun market is alive and well all across the country. How long are we going to tolerate the human cost – children without fathers or mothers, husbands or wives without their partner, mothers without sons? At our vigil we always affirm that each life matters to God and each life matters to us. We pray for the victims, the neighborhoods and the perpetrators because the circle of pain from one gun death goes in many directions.
