Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I won’t have kids. I can’t protect them from our gun laws
A SURVIVOR of the Columbine High School massacre says she will never have children because she can’t protect them under America’s gun laws.
Lindsey Fry was just 15 when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold slaughtered 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School in 1999, before turning their guns on themselves.
Their rampage was the deadliest high school shooting in US history at the time – and became a blueprint for others that followed, including last month’s killings at Uvalde, Texas, which claimed 21 lives.
Lindsey, now 39, who wed husband Eric in 2018, told the Sunday Mirror: “When I was younger I did want kids, but then I remember a conversation with my father after the shooting.
“He told me, ‘We failed at our one job as parents… to keep you safe.’ Seeing the hurt my parents went through – and I came out alive – I cannot imagine…
“I have three nieces and a nephew and I have anxiety about them going to school and about protecting them.
“I can’t imagine having my own children and not being able to protect them. That’s the reality for Americans every day.
“I know people who haven’t been through a school shooting like me, and still don’t want children. There’s a real fear of sending children to school.
“It factors into many people’s decision to not have children. That is the reality of America’s gun culture today.”
Lindsey, a business office manager in an assisted living home in Englewood, Colorado – less than seven miles from Columbine – said she only survived thanks to her friend Daniel Mauser, 15, who was killed in the school library while hiding under a table.
At her wedding ceremony she paid tribute with a photo of him and a table dedicated to the victims.
Recalling the day of the shooting, Lindsey said: “I was in maths class and someone came in to say there was someone with a gun downstairs. We started hearing the popping – and realising they were shots.
“We all panicked and jumped up and my teacher said, ‘Wait a minute, we don’t know what’s happened’.
“The shots were getting louder and you could hear the rumble of pupils running. The fire alarm went off and that’s when we were told to go.
“We went into the hallway and there was just a flood of people. I ran into the park across the road and there was a janitor shielding on the roof. But we thought it was one of the shooters and we ran screaming into the surrounding neighbourhood.
“I’d known Daniel since pre-school, he saved my life that day. I hadn’t done homework for a class I was going to ditch. He persuaded me to go to the maths class – otherwise I’d have gone to the library with him, where he was killed.
“I had a picture of Dan at my wedding. We had a memorial table for the people we lost because he is still an incredible part of my life.”
Lindsey has previously worked with Daniel’s dad Tom in his 20-year campaign to limit US firearms sales.
Lindsey, who still suffers from PTSD and is triggered in particular by
Columbine survivor’s despair at shootings the noise of fireworks, has called on have weapons of mass destruction at dangerous to themselves or others, in the government to tighten gun laws. home. There should be extensive other states the carrying of concealed
She said: “Absolutely nothing has background checks – I can’t see there guns has been made easier. changed in 23 years. Things have only can be any valid reason against that.” Lindsey says seeing other mass got worse and there have been so Since Columbine, 169 people have shootings will always be traumatic. many mass shootings since. been killed in 14 school-related mass She said: “When we see these other
“Columbine caused a shift in focus shootings in the US, with the shootings, such as Uvalde where that sadly hasn’t made any difference youngest just six years old. some of the kids were as young as 10, to gun laws. People presumed there’d Four were more deadly than Columbine it brings back all this survivors’ guilt. be a change and instead these shootings – Sandy Hook, Parkland, “These tiny, tiny kids who survived just seem to perpetuate the ‘cling Virginia Tech and now Uvalde. will also experience that. They’re too to your guns and your God’ narrative. And while 14 states, including young to know how to express
“Gun sales went through the roof. I Colorado, passed “red-flag” laws emotions as it is – how are they going support the right for hunters to be allowing the temporary removal of to process something like this?” able to use guns, but not for people to firearms from a person deemed