By Gary Zidell

One year ago, I found out there was a shooting taking place at my kids’ summer camp at the North Valley Jewish Community Center. For the second time in my life that I can recall, I was felling real fear. The first time was the 1994 Northridge earthquake, but this time it was different as the fear was accompanied by real anger. Within minutes I was in my car rushing to the scene and listening to news reports on the radio. I heard that a six-year-old boy was shot in the foot and was at the Granada Hills Community Hospital. Both Zach, then 7, and James, then 6, were born at that hospital, and now I found myself preparing for that six-year-old shot in the foot to be James. Upon reaching the chaotic situation at the JCC, a swim instructor told me she thought James was shot in the foot, but didn’t know where he was, and that she thought Zach was O.K.

With that information, while not knowing for sure, I rushed over to the GHC hospital, which was less than five minutes away. With my heart pounding, I checked in at the emergency desk and found out that James was there. I can’t explain the relief I felt when I first saw James. This brave little guy wasn’t crying, but was actually drawing faces on blown up surgical gloves with a camp counselor while waiting to have his foot examined by a surgeon. The wound looked nasty as it healed and was very painful at times for James during the first couple of weeks. As it turned out, for as unlucky James was to have been shot, he was just as lucky that the bullet went in and out of his left heal without hitting any bone or major veins/nerves. Within a few weeks, his wound healed and James was hiking with us in Yosemite and playing on a fall baseball team.

Soon after the shooting, we found out about the other victims from the JCC, all because they were Jews, and the postman Joseph Ileto, who was killed because of his race. All were attacked by the neo-Nazi Buford Furrow, who eluded police but eventually turned himself in. Buford said he did this as a wake-up call to kill Jews.

I can’t tell you how disappointed I was that this whole ordeal didn’t end with the police taking out Buford in a shoot out. I knew then that we would all be in for a costly trial, with hearings, delays, postponements, free legal aid for Buford, free food for Buford, free sleeping quarters for Buford, free health care for Buford, free clothes for Buford, free water for Buford, free air for Buford, and who knows what else. For 365 days and counting, he’s been given infinitely more than they gave to any of his victims. Where is the justice in that?

Buford will never get my forgiveness. I won’t fall for any of his legal team’s tricks (insanity, retarded, remorse, easy access to guns, a parole system that didn’t properly check up on him, a rush to judgment, or that he didn’t get his right to a quick and speedy trial, etc.). While I do feel that Buford should be the “poster boy” for someone not allowed to purchase firearms at a gun show, I also feel that criminals like Buford will get the guns they want to matter what new gun laws are created.

Criminals like Buford need to have their days in court streamlined and put on the fast track, so long as all the i’s are dotted and all the t’s are crossed (that which protects the wrongfully accused). In the United States you are presumed innocent until proven guilty, which is good but in this case it has been abused. It is a joke that after a year his trial hasn’t even started and he’s still referred to in articles as the “accused” or “alleged.” For a case considered so complex by the legal community, it sure seems like a slam dunk to me. When it comes to gun violence and hate crimes, a more victim friendly court system (which includes the wrongfully accused as victims) would do our society better than the criminal friendly one we have now.

Existing laws need to be enforced instead of creating new laws so some politician can claim credit for doing something about gun violence and hate crimes, without really doing much at all. Never again should kids at camp or school or anywhere be subjected to the terror that Buford Furrow unleashed. Criminals need to fear our court system instead of taking advantage of it.