America’s gun violence survivor on life after the bullet

RALEIGH, United States: The scourge of gun violence in the United States is no secret: some 36,000 Americans are killed every year on average, or about 100 a day, in homicides, suicides, police-involved shootings and accidents.Hundreds more are shot and wounded daily in the most-heavily armed country in the world. Those victims -- of mass shootings, or just everyday arguments that go awry -- live on with their wounds.The following are profiles of three Americans whose lives were changed forever when they ended up on the wrong end of a gun barrel: Kacey Ruegsegger was sitting in the library at Columbine High School when she heard a series of pops from outside.She turned to see what was going on, but it stopped just as suddenly as it had started, and she went back to reading her magazine. Her fellow students didn’t pay much attention to the noise either. It was April, 20 1999: Kacey’s favorite band NSYNC was riding high in the charts, an animated dancing baby was taking the dial-up era internet by storm, and school shootings were nearly unheard of.The sophomore shouldn’t have even been at school at that time of the day. Every day at lunchtime, the blonde 17-year-old would drive with her best friend back to home to eat and discuss their latest crushes.On that day though, Kacey couldn’t find her friend. After realising it was too late to head home, she wolfed down a granola bar and headed to the library. Minutes later, a teacher entered, screaming at everyone that there were boys with guns. "The panic and her voice made it clear that this was real, and we needed to get down and hide," Ruegsegger told AFP in an interview at her home in Raleigh, North Carolina. —AFP

from The News International - World https://ift.tt/34iwGdG