Yahoo Parenting

A Stark Look at How Gun Violence Ripped These Families Apart

Beth GreenfieldSenior Editor

Updated Wed, June 17, 2015 at 4:18 PM UTC

"My life shattered into pieces when my oldest daughter Anna died suddenly from an undiagnosed fatal brain tumor. When Jasmine was killed five years later, I had to reinvent my life yet again,” says Carol, of Tucson, Ariz. “The difference is that Anna's death was not volitional: a disease caused it. There was a day when I was able to come to terms with the unfairness of her young life ending so suddenly. Disease is a part of life — painful, but part of the mix. Murder should not be a part of life." Jasmine was killed in 1999 by two men who were seeking to “eliminate witnesses” to a previous crime they committed.
Joe Quint/www.ittakes.us

Wayne, an avid hunter and gun owner from Portland, ME, still has no idea who the masked intruder was who shot and killed his daughter, Darien, 25. The police department considers it a cold case. "People don't want you to talk about death,” Wayne says. “They don't want you to talk about gun violence. They think you should have a period of time that you're sad and then you should be okay. I think I am always going to be sad. I am always going to be sad. I am going to always miss my daughter. That is not going to stop. You have a kid — [my] first born — you have a daughter you raised to adulthood and it’s like, that is not going to stop. It just doesn't stop. The love doesn't stop."
Joe Quint/www.ittakes.us

Kari visits the grave of her son, Bradley, at the Intertribal Cemetery in Lawton, OK. He was an innocent victim of gang-related violence in 2009, when he was just 19 years old.
Joe Quint/www.ittakes.us

When Eric had to identify the body of his daughter Ryanne, 19, who was killed in a mass shooting at Northern Illinois University, "a sound came out of me that I don't ever want to hear again,” he says.
Joe Quint/www.ittakes.us

Mary shows the spot where she shielded and saved the life of her daughter, 9, when a gunman opened fire at a campaign event for Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Ariz. She was shot three times in the process and says that childhood ended for both her children that day. However, Mary says, "I am not defined by my experience. It has refined me, or maybe distilled me. It definitely has crystalized my resolve to make this world better for my children. But it does not define me."
Joe Quint/www.ittakes.us

While Dre, 14, of Indianapolis, hasn't yet regained his ability to talk, walk, or feed himself more than six or seven forkfuls of a meal, he's doing a lot better since he was shot in 1999 by some kids who were thrown out of a party — ever since doctors, as his mother DeAndra says, “put his skull back on.”"I called to speak to Dre last night and [his nurse said] he was found crying in his room on Tuesday.... broke my heart into two,” she says. “I called my grandmother and cried like a baby. I literally felt heartache at the thought of my son laying in a room alone, crying. Grandma quickly brought to my attention that there was a time where Dre felt no emotion, she said I pray for him everyday and now God is allowing him to feel again and react to his emotions. …I didn't see the immediate blessing and prayer that had been answered.”
Joe Quint/www.ittakes.us

Lucy's son Jordan, age 17, was shot and killed by a man in Jacksonville, Florida, who thought the music he and his friends were listening to in their SUV was too loud. “People that have not been affected by the violence, there's no way they can really understand and know the impact of it,” said Lucy, who lives in Atlanta. “It doesn't just affect the family. It affects the community and it affects the school system and it affects the church body and affects every facet of …that life that was lost. It's like, you know, a pool you throw stone in.”
Joe Quint/www.ittakes.us

Alex, Tom's son, was killed in the Aurora, Colo., movie theater shooting when he was just 24. Not wishing to give the killer the notoriety he seeks, Tom simply refers to him as "it.”
Joe Quint/www.ittakes.us

Rose stands in the Cranston, Rhode Island, driveway where her adult son Jim, 44, was shot and killed by his neighbor during his own son's 9th birthday party — as all the children looked on. “It was all so surreal. I mean, the witnesses were children,” Rose says. “They had to testify and say what they saw. This 12-year-old boy on the stand, he was crying so much. That’s not something a 12-year-old should ever be a part of.”
Joe Quint/www.ittakes.us

Carol

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"My life shattered into pieces when my oldest daughter Anna died suddenly from an undiagnosed fatal brain tumor. When Jasmine was killed five years later, I had to reinvent my life yet again,” says Carol, of Tucson, Ariz. “The difference is that Anna's death was not volitional: a disease caused it. There was a day when I was able to come to terms with the unfairness of her young life ending so suddenly. Disease is a part of life — painful, but part of the mix. Murder should not be a part of life." Jasmine was killed in 1999 by two men who were seeking to “eliminate witnesses” to a previous crime they committed.

Joe Quint/www.ittakes.us

Alex, Tom's son, was killed in the Aurora, Colo., movie theater shooting when he was just 24. Not wishing to give the killer the notoriety he seeks, Tom simply refers to him as "it.”
Joe Quint/www.ittakes.us

Every day, 88 Americans are killed by gun violence. And just knowing that was enough to push Brooklyn–based photographer Joe Quint into action. He went on a mission to spread the word in the best way he knew how: by turning his lens on those left behind, and by opening his heart (and in turn, the hearts of others) to their stories.

“I want to show how the crisis extends far beyond the typical media narrative of urban violence to include domestic abuse, suicide, children being injured or killed by unsecured guns in their homes, and so many more tragic cases,” writes Quint in the artist’s statement of his new exhibit, “It Takes Us,” which opened in New York City on Thursday. Quint, whose other subjects have ranged from city street scenes to couples getting married at City Hall, has partnered with Everytown for Gun Safety, a national advocacy movement for end gun violence, and plans to tour his show to other cities across the country.

“It’s a really grassroots project,” Quint, who has photographed about 40 subjects so far, tells Yahoo Parenting. He found families with stories to tell through Facebook, friends of friends, and advocacy organizations. “I basically asked around,” he says, “and unfortunately, more than a few hands went up.” Here, a preview from Quint’s haunting exhibit.

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Carol

Wayne

Kari

Eric

Mary

DeAndra

Lucy

Tom

Rose

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