In an article in Sunday’s Akron, Ohio, Beacon Journal, a Copley, Ohio, resident, who has found a home at Grace Church, Bath Campus, Akron, Ohio (Jeff Bogue, senior pastor), speaks out in favor of gun rights, while favoring laws that would give stricter controls. Becky Dieter is, herself, a victim of a mass shooting. A portion of the story appears below. Click here to read the complete article.
Survivor of Copley rampage backs gun rights, but seeks stricter controls
Becky Dieter was checking the channels on her TV on Sunday, Aug. 4, when she saw the breaking news. Two mass murders, one just a couple hundred miles away from her Cuyahoga Falls home.
It was three days away from the eighth anniversary of the Aug. 7, 2011, Copley shootings in which Dieter’s boyfriend Michael Hance, 51, killed seven people and wounded Dieter in a 10-minute shooting frenzy. A Copley officer who had responded to the scene shot and killed Hance.
“No, no, no. This isn’t happening,” Dieter said as she took in the TV news report about the shootings — one in El Paso, Texas, on Aug. 3, in which 22 people were killed, and another hours later, on Aug. 4, in which nine people were fatally shot in Dayton.
Memories of the Copley shootings came rushing back. Dieter, now 57, said she felt “pressure in her chest … extreme anxiety.” …
She’s no longer comfortable in crowded places — even though the Copley shootings took place in a quiet neighborhood.
She continues to see a therapist, and she’s found a church home at Grace Church in Bath, where she attends a grief group.
“I know God is with me. I know he would love [for] me to focus forward, but it’s very difficult,” she said. “I don’t think about the fact I was injured. I think about all those people who are gone.”
“Pray for the victims and their families and friends,” Dieter said of the recent mass shootings. “I also ask that you please pray for the shooter’s family members and friends. They are often forgotten victims or are blamed for the family members’ actions.”