Michigan State University student John Hao, who was injured in a campus mass shooting in February, attended an NBA playoff game Sunday as a guest of Philadelphia 76ers guard James Harden. Hao, who now uses a wheelchair, is a reminder that mass shooters don’t just kill people; they also wound and disable people.
Hao, who now uses a wheelchair, is a reminder that mass shooters don’t just kill people; they also wound and disable people.
Hao is an international student from China who has indicated that he may return home. Who could blame him? His being shot was an awful “welcome to America” moment. The United States is on pace in 2023 to have the most mass killing events it’s ever had. According to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University, as of May 11, this year there have been 41 people killed in mass shootings at a public space and 74 killed in mass shooting events that took place in a nonpublic space. Ironically, because that database only includes crimes where at least four people were murdered — and the MSU shooter murdered three — the attack that left Hao disabled isn’t included in that tally.
But even if that mass shooting had met the threshold, that doesn’t mean that people like Hao would necessarily be remembered. People disabled by gun violence occupy a peculiar spot in America’s cruel epidemic. After mass shootings, we focus almost exclusively on the number of people killed. Often there are touching profiles about who those people killed were, what dreams and aspirations they had and what their grieving families will miss most about them.
Generally overlooked are the people left wounded, including those whose lives are changed by a disability that may inhibit their enjoyment of their favorite activities or derail their career plans.
Research has shown that places with higher levels of gun violence also have higher levels of functional disabilities. And America, obviously, is…
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