How about this for a "fun fact" Toxic?




Guns trigger a loving clash
By David Haldane, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 10, 2008

DISPUTE: Julie Alban talks to her son, Joseph, in the kitchen of her parents’ Long Beach home. She was shot in the home by a man who had stolen a gun from her father, whom she sees as a ‘participant’ in her injury. He feels that he did nothing irresponsible


Shot and paralyzed 20 years ago, Julie Alban -- now with a baby -- wanted her dad's arms kept out of the house.

Julie Alban still grimaces when she passes her old bedroom.

"This is where I crawled down the hallway to call 911," she explains, pushing her wheelchair along the polished wooden floor. "I had to pull my whole body with my arms. My elbows were all bloody."

What happened that morning 20 years ago altered the course of her life and set the stage for most of what would come.

Though paralyzed from the waist down when shot by a boyfriend she had known since childhood, Alban went on to become a Long Beach prosecutor specializing in domestic abuse cases, a Republican candidate for Assembly, champion for the rights of disabled people and, most recently, mother of a 5-month-old boy. A frequent inspirational speaker, she also has become an ardent gun control proponent.

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