An epidemic of gun violence has overtaken the United States. More than 30,000 people are killed by firearms every year; more than half of those the result of firearm related suicides. Discussions about gun control often center on reducing the numbers of firearm related deaths. Unfortunately, what often gets lost in those discussions, is that many people have had their lives irrevocably altered by firearms. Though still alive, they have been deeply affected by gun violence.  Here is the story of one such survivor, Clai Lasher-Sommers:

My mother married this man. I didn’t live with her at first, but the first night I went back, it was just a horrific domestic-violence situation. My mother would call for help, but there was no police in the town. And people didn’t want to see what was right next to them, and if they do, they don’t know what to do. Especially if there’s children involved; they’ll keep their own children away but they won’t get involved with the family. We’d go to school with black eyes. I lived like that. After I got shot, they interviewed the school officials, and they said they never thought anything of [the signs of abuse].

He would always threaten to shoot me, meanwhile beating everyone up. And one night, I felt like he would shoot me. My mother said to me, “You better be careful, he’s going to shoot you.” I was in my bedroom and I went to close the door and he shot me. The bullet exploded in my back.

I was in the hospital for a long time in Dartmouth, but they never sent anyone in to talk to me about it. If you’re shot today it’s just as horrific, but people stand up and help you. In 1970, that certainly wasn’t the case.

(The story of Clai Lasher-Sommers is part of a feature on America’s gun violence epidemic from Rolling Stone)