Rock Your Confidence: Misty
MEET MISTY
My name is Misty. I am from a small town just north of Charlotte. I work for three very demanding children, and I love every second of it.
HER STORY
Our normal every day family life changed on Sunday, March 29th 2015. It was a beautiful day outside and my kids were outside playing. My husband and I were enjoying my parents company while the kids were enjoying the fresh air. A while after being outside, my son came running home trembling from head to toe. The only way I can describe his trembling is to compare it to the shakes you get when you are trying to break a fever. He continued to say my friend is shot, my friend is shot. We had no idea how real that comment was until moments later.
My son and 3 other friends were playing outside at the neighbor’s house. They were playing “cops and robbers” and my son and the neighbor’s son were locked in the shed because they were the “robbers” and were placed in “prison.” The neighbor’s son spotted a loaded and unsecure rifle within reach and grabbed it and said he was going to break out of jail. For a quick second the rifle was in my sons face as he begged his friends on the outside to let him out. They finally did and my son ran out of the shed with the doors closing behind him. Moments later the doors of the shed opened again and the little boy holding the rifle shot their other friend in the face. The bullet entered below his cheek bone, when through that side of his face and exited right below his ear. God was with that child that day as we still don’t know how he survived that shot.
THE LESSON
This changed our lives forever. My son had just witnessed his friend get shot in the face by a rifle, an event that most adults could not even imagine. After the shooting I had to take my son to the investigator to give his statement about what happened that day. My heart was shattered in a million tiny pieces for my son by a bullet that didn’t enter me.
BE INSPIRED
I was enraged to learn that that father who left his weapon unsecured and loaded was only going to get a “slap on the wrist.” I decided I had to be the voice for my child and I had to do something about unintentional child shootings that happen far too often. I joined a gun violence prevention organization called Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. The organization allows me to give my son a voice and to talk about how we as parents and adults can work better in keeping guns out of the hands of children. If you or someone you know has been effected by any form of gun violence please visit www.everytown.org and if you would like to help me stop unintentional child shootings please visit www.momsdemandaction.org