Veterans’ firearm injuries

Kodak

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Since childhood, Kodak knew he wanted to join the military. Coming from a legacy of Black political leaders, Kodak felt destined to run for office and knew the military would be one way to achieve his aspiration. After 10 years of service in the Army, Kodak returned home to be with his family and further his college education. Kodak experienced his firearm injury during a domestic incident with his family. This injury led to long-term implications, both with his family members as well as personally. Since then, he has had to contend with the social implications of his firearm injury, as well as deal with his emerging feelings about his time in the military. Since experiencing his firearm injury, Kodak says he is more guarded when approaching new situations. He has been likewise frustrated by his experience with the VA Healthcare system and feels that Veteran care should be practiced and led by other Veterans. To Kodak, Veterans are able to relate to one another better than providers and are thus equipped to provide meaningful advice to those seeking care.

Kodak recalls how his mother conspired to shoot him.

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Kodak recalls how his mother conspired to shoot him.

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I ended up having to stay with my mother after I was arrested by the federal government and was sentenced to thirty years in federal prison. I fought like hell to get out in sixty-one months. In that time, I was sexually assaulted. I came home; the VA diagnosed me with PTSD and gave me a rating.

She claimed to be scared of me and it was nothing more than me telling her she’s not getting my money. I had to give her the little rent or buy groceries with food stamps that I was getting.

So, I started going to the VA and getting help with my federal PO, who was a veteran out of the same war. He would tell my mother he understood; his mother was the same way. And she’d come up with every story to get me out of the house. And the police finally told her, “He will end up having you evicted if you went that far because he doesn’t do anything.”

So, her and my brother plotted one day, and I will wake up in the wee hours of the night about 2:00, and she is known to conspire. And so, I heard her. I stayed right across from her room; I heard her on the phone with my oldest brother who lives next door. And she said - she was talking about shooting him below the waist if he has a problem with me telling him to get out.

By the time I got down the hallway, all the stuff had transpired to what she was concocting; a situation, and she said, “I want you out of my house,” this and that. I just had made tons of groceries, amongst other things, paid the bills, and she just was jealous that I wouldn’t give her extra money. So, when I walked to get the rest of my stuff to put in the car, she shot me in my lower left leg.

Kodak recommends that loved ones “listen, talk to them, be more aware.”

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Kodak recommends that loved ones “listen, talk to them, be more aware.”

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Listen, talk to them, be more aware. Open their mind to try to understand more that real things come with real feelings and plant real behaviors, or life-altering experiences and you just have to accept that person as they are. Because some folks don’t have the capacity to communicate things or can’t even position themselves to give advice to people not only because they support the perpetrator but that they themselves are just so broken, the advice they want to give or think they’re capable of giving, is hurtful.