An Auglaize county woman continues to mourn the accidental shooting death of her son, six years later. Brenda Martin has made gun safety her number one cause.
It was March 19th 2006.....18 year old Joshua Martin dies after being accidentally shot in the head by a friend. Josh's mother, Brenda, is still bothered by what happened and frequently visits his grave.
"Even with time passing it has not got easier. I mean, you hope it does, you think it will. But you know there's not one person who has lost a child who said it got better", said Martin.
Since Josh's death, Martin has been a gun safety activist, often speaking before school groups and concealed carry classes.
"When I'm feeling down and every time somebody asks me about Josh and I'm able to talk to them about gun safety, it's a comfort, it's actually good therapy than to do nothing. If I did nothing I wouldn't be able to get out of bed."
Gun safety is always on the mind of Terry Maris who teaches concealed carry classes in the area. From what he knows about the case, he wouldn't call this shooting an "accident."
"It was gun negligence. It was ignorance on the part of the young man who was handling the gun and the young man who was shot. The parent was supposed to be supervising, but was not supervising in this case and the boy accessed a firearm which he should not have had access to. He assumed it was unloaded, which in this instance turned out to be a fatal assumption. He did not intentionally kill his friend but he aimed a loaded gun at him and pulled the trigger" said Maris.
Maris says there are some basic things to remember to keep your family safe.
"Any gun no matter if you believe it to be loaded is potentially dangerous. All guns should be considered to be loaded. Guns should always be out of the reach of children or other unauthorized persons," added Maris.
Martin doesn't speak as often to groups and instead lets the sign on the back of her vehicle do the talking.
"I feel like I'm making a difference, one person at a time maybe. Maybe I wasn't meant to stand in front of 200 people and do this gun safety. Maybe I am supposed to do it one person at a time."
On the third Saturday of each month, the Lima Sabres Gun Club on Hanthorn road holds concealed carry classes. During those classes a special video telling the story of Josh Martin is presented.
