Women Tell Personal Experiences with Gun Violence during Listening Session

Women who have personally faced gun violence spoke about their traumatic experiences to raise awareness about the issue.

Debra Gillispie hosted the listening session for Voices of Gun Violence but gave center stage to three powerful women who told their stories of how they are healing from damage done to them by guns.

All too often the victims of gun violence are reduced to late night news stories and statistics, glossing over the fact that these victims are human beings. Many people forget survivors of gun violence must now live with traumatic experiences for the rest of their lives and the family members of those slain must continue with the pain of having a loved one taken from them. Voices of Gun Violence wants to remind people that gun violence creates victims not just news stories and statistics. The organization strives to amplify the voices of survivors and family members who were victimized by senseless violence.

The group hosted a virtual listening session to share the stories of three victims of gun violence in our community Nov. 18.

The first victim was Milwaukee resident Melody Villanueva. Villanueva received a call from local authorities saying that her only son was executed by his father at home. That day Villanueva lost a loved one in her partner. In her own words her son was not lost but “taken from me”.

Next is Krista Paris who was victimized while walking down the street in Shorewood. Paris was approached by an assailant who held her at gunpoint then forced her down a dark alley. Paris was then robbed and raped at gunpoint behind someone’s garage in a Shorewood alley. Traumatized Paris ran home naked where she was greeted by her only son. After he realized what happened the two held each other crying.

Finally, Shantell Riley lost her son to a random act of gun violence. Riley’s son was not just her son but a father to Riley’s precious grandson. Now that young boy will have to grow up without a father. Riley described her son’s relationship with his son as, “actively involved in his life”. Sometimes the biggest victims from gun violence are the next generation left behind.

Riley did mention that the news story forgot to mention the fact that her son left behind a son. In fact the news forgot to mention a lot about her son. Riley stated in the listening session that, “My son became just a news story, another statistic. He was dehumanized.” 

Paris also talked about how she was just turned into another statistic in a dehumanizing way. Courageously Paris was able to make it to the hospital where she was not granted a nurse until after hours of waiting. Paris just survived being raped at gunpoint and had to wait for hours to be helped. Paris tearfully voiced her feeling in the listening session  saying, “ We are fighting a war. Spending billions of dollars to kill people but we cannot afford another nurse to see me.”

Villanueva is coping by “fully hopping into activism”;  trying to stop the next mother from having to lose her child. Villanueva then offers other survivors the advice to keep fighting. She admits that she was attacked by depressive and suicidal thoughts after such a traumatic experience and she understands that other victims probably are feeling the same way. She reminds them that, “I feel the pain but to think about suicide and attempting means you’ll never see your loved ones agains”. Villanueva asks survivors to think about the other loved ones in their life as motivation to keep living.

Paris is coping by speaking out against violence and helping other survivors with coping through their own traumatic experiences. She reminds victims that “It is never your fault” and to “Go seek help. Mentally or physically just seek help.” Most importantly Paris tells survivors to find comfort in the fact they are not alone and there are other people that have and continue to survive with the same pains as them.

Riley just wants to remind the listeners to never forget that the people on the news stories are in fact people. She pushes listeners to never just view these people as just statistics. She even admits that it took her son being killed for her to fully humanize all these violent death here. Riley ends the session saying, “That was someone’s child or that was someone’s mother or father or brother. The news turns these people into stories and statistics but when I hear these stories now I humanize them.”