SA woman living in the US talks gun violence

Monique Martin shared her views on gun violence in America with women’s site, Hello Giggles, recently.

She says she had her first experience with guns when she was just two years old. According to her mother, who was pregnant with her brother at the time, the family woke up to the sound of gunfire outside their Cape Town home.

Her father yanked her out of bed by her ankles and put her on the floor.

Monique says the experience left her traumatised, and she still sleeps with her feet covered because she has “always had a fear of being ripped from my bed”.

Apparently, an angry neighbour, who discovered his wife was cheating, was the cause of the gunfire.

Monique, who currently lives in the Deep South, says shootings incidents are something South Africans are used to.

“It is a country known for its violent climate. You hear about murders, rapes, and robberies gone awry almost every day if you’re not inside the bubble of naivety. That bubble also exists in the U.S.A., a country that has been my home for the past 19 years. And in that time, there have been countless mass shootings,” she wrote.

Her family sought a safer life in the US, but Monique admits her mom now feels the need to store a handgun in their home, despite living in a relatively crime free neighbourhood.

She added that she is uncomfortable around guns.

“Maybe because the only time I ever came home late at night without warning my mom, I learned that she was hiding behind a wall, gun in hand… Accidents, self-defense, retaliation, mass shootings — in my mind, nothing justifies the owning of a gun.”

Read her full story here.