LIFE After Gun Violence

A uniquely AMERICAN epidemic, GUN VIOLENCE can feel like an inextricable part of our LIVES. Do we have to ACCEPT that this is just the way things are? Here, 10 PEOPLE who have been DIRECTLY IMPACTED by it SHARE their STORIES-and why they REFUSE to do so.

- MATTIE KAHN

As of this writing, the Gun Violence Archive, an independent research group, reports that there have been more than 195 mass shootings in 2023. (Per the GVA, a mass shooting is defined as any incident in which four or more people are shot and wounded or killed.) The first mass shooting this year occurred in Miami Gardens, Florida, where nine people were shot just after midnight on New Year's Day. A toddler was wounded. No fewer than five shootings followed within the next 24 hours. One person died in Mifflin Township, Ohio; four were injured. Two people were killed and four were injured in Ocala, Florida. In Chicago, a teenager was killed. He was 17. Three others were injured; all of them were under 18.

There have since been dozens more. The breaking-news alerts blaring updates from massacres at schools and banks and houses of worship and malls and parades and concerts make up just a fraction of the total. There are small, wrenching vigils that never make the news. There are funerals and protests that leave behind a headline or two and broken parents. Schools email families about a dead student or a dead teacher. Facebook laments the death of an old classmate. You have scrolled past this kind of news. It would be impossible not to. There is just too much of it.

In the following pages, you will read about the experiences of 10 people who have been directly affected by gun violence-and what their lives are like now. Two are mothers whose children were shot and killed. Three lost a best friend to gun violence. One is entering the sixth grade. She likes to listen to Olivia Rodrigo. When she has to endure active-shooter drills at school, she prefers to wear noise-canceling headphones. The hope is that their stories, at once vastly different but with themes that echo one another throughout, serve as a reminder: We cannot become numb.