MANATEE — A gunowners group might not be the first place a gunshot victim looks for help, but that’s the community that reached out to help 5-year-old Davien Martinez.
Davien was shot in the head July 27, 2013, while lying in bed with his mother. He escaped death but suffered damage to his brain. The drive-by shooting near his home left the then 4-year-old blind in one eye, and his mother, Diane Lopez, said he now has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, an impulse disorder, ADHD and anxiety as a result of the shooting.
To help with those issues, Lopez wants to get her son a service dog that she hopes will be therapeutic. But such a dog will cost about $11,000 and Lopez said she can’t afford that on her own.
For the newspaper it seems like a weird thing, but we know we have done our share to support cases like this. It is common for clubs to have matches and raise funds for our favorite local charities but they don’t get publicized because it defies the Narrative.
But at the end of the day, we don’t do it for the limelight but for those who need it. We don’t flash or look to look good for the Six O’Clock news. We do it because it is right. The Tampa Bay Gun Runners have taken the initiative to help this kid and it is up to us, shooters of Florida and everywhere to back them up.
So I ask you to go to Davien’s GoFundMe page and invest one or better yet, the price of several boxes of ammo to get a boy a dog that he needs. Anything you can give helps.
The opposition claims to have the heart, we know they don’t. We do, let’s get this done.
Thanks to D.J. for the info.
I donated, and it’s set up to EASILY share to your facebook and twitter! It really helps guys! I’m in St. Louis, and we got the heads up from Miquel in Florida. Bad news travels fast, let’s help some good news travel faster! 5, 10, 20 bucks can add up quickly…
Call me callous if you wish but has his need for a service dog been vetted by physical, psychiatric, and psychological rehab? I understand that his mom wants to make things the best she can for him, but service dogs are not pets or companions.
Good point. A pet might be better for a 5-year-old.
And if Service dogs are neither pets nor companions, that makes me a little sad. Dogs deserve to be dogs sometimes.
Most dogs seem to thrive on having something to do. But a service dog is expensive because of the amount of time it takes to train not only the dog but the person the dog provides service to. I’m by no means an expert on who needs service dogs, and I know that what might seem like a “trivial” matter to some is a bone fide reason for the help of a service dog, but this sounds more like “make me feel better about what happened to my kid” than “these are the reasons the docs gave me why my kid needs (not could be better if he had one) a service dog.
Lots of folks need help, and some of them deserve it, too. I just don’t want to see the goodwill thrown away.
stay safe.
I am his mother… with that being said i have reccomendations from his occupational therapist., his primary doctor, as well as his neurologist. I have done a ton of reaserch on this before taking it to his doctors. I am not the type of person to ask for help unless it was needed.
This all answers pretty much all of my questions. Good luck, and I hope your son goes on to live a long and fulfilling life.
Yes, he sees a large number of doctors for his condition and the dog has been recommended by them. We (The Tampa Bay Gun Runners) are in the process of setting up the training for the dog and vet services for the dog as well.
With the total of the gofundme and what we have collected so far, Davien is at $7000 in 3 days.
Thanks GFZ for running this story….we need all the outlets we can to help spread the word.