杨贵妃传媒視頻

A disability rights group in Texas sent out a survey last month, trying to figure out how many of its members became disabled due to gun violence. The group,聽, said it鈥檚 an effort to collect data that will help inform Texas lawmakers on how they legislate guns.

Bob Kafka is an organizer with ADAPT and said that when gun violence happens, particularly mass shootings, the public tends to have a pretty limited discussion about what happens to the victims.

Susan Nelson was one of those victims. About 25 years ago, she was having dinner at a friend鈥檚 house. Her friend had a gun.

鈥淚t was registered and everything,鈥� she said of her friend鈥檚 firearm.

There was also a young man there that night. He鈥檇 been thrown out of his parents鈥� house and seemed unstable. He found the gun and confronted both Nelson and her friend, saying he was going to rob and then kill them. Nelson said he then shot her in her left shoulder.

鈥淚 stood up to turn to run and was shot in the back of the head,鈥� she said. 鈥淢y friend was as well, and that鈥檚 the last part I remember from the shooting. My friend died in flight to the hospital, and I woke from a coma two weeks later.鈥�

She was 29 and had to start her life all over.

鈥淚 was paralyzed,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 could barely read and write. My vision was really bad, so I had to spend the next seven months in therapy relearning everything and working really, really hard.鈥�

Her hard work paid off. Nelson can walk now and is writing again, working as . Her vision is good, but she still lives with various disabilities.

鈥淚t takes me longer to formulate my sentences because my brain doesn鈥檛 work as fast to make the words come out of my mouth as fast as I鈥檇 like,鈥� she said.

This experience hasn鈥檛 changed Nelson鈥檚 relationship with guns very much, though. She grew up in southeast Texas surrounded by guns. She said she still thinks people who are responsible should be able to have them.

鈥淚 am not against guns. And I don鈥檛 know that [for] everyone who gets shot [the ordeal is] going to turn them against guns,鈥� she said.

This is something Kafka said he鈥檚 expecting as the survey results come in. He wants to learn how many members are in this category and their thoughts on guns, in order to educate lawmakers and testify on gun legislation. Kafka said he hopes to hear a range of perspectives on guns from the community of people living with disabilities, because it鈥檚 so big.

鈥淲e have people on both sides of the issue,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here are probably NRA members in the disability community.鈥�

He points out that Texas鈥� very conservative and very pro-gun governor, Greg Abbott, has used a wheelchair since he was 26 after a tree fell on him while he was jogging after a storm.

Kafka said we should hear from people who are disabled due to gun violence because we rarely do.

鈥淣ot only do we not talk about it, it鈥檚 invisible,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he media loves to focus on how many people died and then they have the sort of 鈥榦ther injured,鈥� but I鈥檝e never seen where they follow the rehab of somebody.鈥�

Mass shootings also tend to garner a lot of media attetion, said聽聽with the Department of Social Work at DePaul University in Chicago. Ostrander said a lot of people become disabled because of day-to-day gun violence in major cities. For many years, Ostrander worked with gang members on the west side of Chicago who became paralyzed after being shot.

鈥淭he cost of that injury, and that often then becomes a public cost, is astronomical, and I think that would be shocking to a lot of folks,鈥� he said.

It鈥檚 also easy to forget, Ostrander said, that among victims of gun violence, about three to five times the number of people who die from it聽.

This story is part of a partnership that includes , and Kaiser Health News.