Filed under: News, Race and Civil Rights
Jessica Moore (pictured on the right) was just like any other college student. The sophomore at Seton Hall University in New Jersey studied hard during the week, earning herself a spot on the honor roll. She was studying psychology and enjoyed singing. In her free time on the weekend, she liked hanging out with friends, laughing and joking.
It's the great lifestyle of a college student that I always tell young African Americans is a good reason to go to college. You learn when to work hard but also learn about leaving time for fun and relaxation.
Moore, 19, was hanging out at an off-campus frat party Saturday, when a man who was angry about not getting in to the party, came back with a gun and started shooting. A stampede followed, with students rushing to climb out of doors and windows:
"The whole crowd was like a stampede. Girls were being trampled on ... it was pure terror," a man who attended the party and identified himself as a May graduate of Seton Hall but did not wish to be identified told The Star-Ledger of New Jersey.
When the shooting and running was over, five people lay wounded. Moore, though, lay on the floor, bleeding from a shot to the head.
She died later that night.
Witnesses say Moore was rushing to help her suitemate Nakeisha Vanterpool (pictured above left) who was shot in the jaw.
"This is the most unreal feeling I have ever felt [Jessica] is not only my friend but my sister life will never be the same," she wrote on her Facebook page.
Senseless shootings like this one are the reason this country must find the political and moral will to limit the production of guns.
If this idiotic individual was angry at something as insignificant as not getting in to a party but did not have access to a gun, he would not have had the means to end one young life and seriously disrupt four others.
We are the most heavily armed society in the world. A 2007 survey found we have 90 guns for every 100 citizens. We own almost a third of the known firearms in the world - an anomaly given the size of the country. Last year, people in this country purchased $14-million firearms - more than the number of soldiers in the Top 21 armies in the world.
I'm willing to bet that the gun used in this shooting was illegally obtained. The argument that people, not guns, commit crimes doesn't work. Guns are an easy way to take out anger. With the simple squeeze of a trigger, this man was able to do something he might not have done if there was no weapon and he had a chance to calm down.
And the dangers of guns are infiltrating every facet of our society. There doesn't seem to be a week that passes where some disgruntled employee doesn't come back in to work shooting at his or her colleagues. HerDon't forget students who are angry at being bullied or ignored.
Now Moore's parents are left to mourn the loss of their daughter during what should have been an exciting time of growth and discovery in her life. She was at a time of her life, when she may have figured out her life's vocation or met her future mate or simply enjoyed being young and intellectually curious.
We lost a young athlete who wanted to help counsel military veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. This was going to be a woman who was going to be an asset to our country in one way or another.
"She was a smart, sweet girl," Kendra Nickens, whose two daughters were close friends of Moore's told NJ.com.
Now that smart, sweet girl is gone because someone who couldn't control their anger had easy access to the most lethal of weapons.