Guns and mental illness are not a good mix.

Back when I was in High School my sister Kay committed suicide. Not with a gun, but I believe the only reason for that was …

My baby sister, Mary and I were arguing about using the phone (yeah, back then we only had a land line) I was just reaching for the phone when it rang. The call was for Kay. Not real happy because I wanted to use the phone I hollered downstairs that the phone was for her.

She came roaring up the basement steps and grabbed the phone from my hand. After less than a minute she headed back down to her basement room. Now this was an old house and every door had a key in the lock, when she slammed the door, the key fell out. My grandmother went to put it back in the lock. Kay came up the stairs at a dead run, slammed the door open, and grabbed my grandmother by the throat.

I was out of the room on the phone. I heard Mary screaming. I ran to the kitchen to find Kay choking my grandmother. I told her, “Let go of her or by God I’ll kill you.” I meant it. I meant every word. A picture of me picking her up and tossing her down the stairs flashed through my head. I guess she saw it in my eyes because she let go and ran back downstairs. I hollered after her to pack up and get out before my parents got home from work.

A few minutes later, she came back up and left.

When my parents got home, I explained the situation and my grandmother backed me up. By that time my boyfriend (The Curmudgeon) was at the house. My father asked us to go through my sister’s things and locate and flush all her pills. (She had an addiction to Seconal.)

While searching her room, The Curmudgeon found a locked metal box and being a nosy person he picked the lock. I was going through her dresser when I heard the box clatter to the floor behind me. Turning around I saw him sitting on her bed, pale and shaking. I’d never seen him like that before. It scared me.

When I asked him what was wrong, he pointed to a gun next to him on the bed. He practically sobbed when he said, “she could’ve come up shooting and taken you all out.”

We never told my parents. The gun is gone. 

My sister NEVER should have had a gun in her possession. She had a record of mental illness and suicide attempts–one where she shot herself. Had a proper background check been done…well, you know she wouldn’t have had either gun.

Last year, handguns killed

10 people in Japan

50 in Great Britain

47 in Switzerland

611 in Canada

105 in Israel

41 in Sweden

38,658 in the United states

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