A group of parents who lost children in mass shootings are a growing network that one parent calls “the Dead Kid Club,” reports the Los Angeles Times. The group of parents joins together to tame their grief — pointing toward self-care, togetherness and advocating for gun safety as ways to lessen the burden of losing a child. The suffering can sometimes be overwhelming. After a mass shooting, an estimated 28 percent of witnesses will develop PTSD, according to the National Center for PTSD. Many people who lose loved ones to gun violence develop depression, anxiety or other psychological conditions.
In 2019, Jeremy Richman took his own life seven years after his daughter Avielle was killed in the Sandy Hook shooting. In Uvalde, the husband of one teacher killed in the May 24 shooting died of a heart attack “due to grief.” In 2020, gun-related incidents surpassed car crashes as the leading cause of death among young people ages 1 to 19, according to an analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.