“Like everybody, and I’d say particularly like each guardian, I’m after all saddened and horrified by the newest mass shooting-murder. My sympathies to all,” James Fallows, a longtime correspondent for this journal, wrote almost a decade in the past on July 20, 2012. That day, a gunman had opened hearth on theater-goers in Aurora, Colorado. A dozen individuals have been useless.
He continued: “And naturally the extra unhappy, horrifying, and appalling level is the shared American information that, past any doubt, it will occur once more, and that it’s going to occur in America many, many occasions earlier than it happens wherever else.”
Within the years since, Individuals have watched Fallows’s phrases change into related time and time once more. And they’re related once more right now, because the nation makes an attempt to course of the information {that a} gunman has killed 18 kids and a trainer at an elementary college in Uvalde, Texas.
We are protecting and can proceed to cowl the specifics of the Texas capturing within the coming days. However we are also reflecting on the longer historical past of weapons on this nation. Under, you’ll discover a assortment of this journal’s earlier protection of the subject, written by our employees, in addition to by a health care provider, a high-school scholar, and others who’ve been harm by gun violence. This record is nonexhaustive and provided in no specific order. It’ll actually be related once more.
1. “What I Noticed Treating the Victims From Parkland Ought to Change the Debate on Weapons” by Heather Sher (2018)
A radiologist who was on shift in the course of the mass capturing at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive Faculty describes what it’s like to look at the CT scan of a sufferer wounded by an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle.
2. “I’m Not Afraid of COVID-19. I’m Afraid of Faculty Shootings.” by Vedika Jawa (2021)
A high-school senior from Fremont California shares her worry: “I fear that someday the college experiencing a mass capturing received’t be in Parkland, Florida, or Newtown, Connecticut, however in my metropolis.”
3. “What Critics Don’t Perceive About Gun Tradition” by David French (2018)
The Atlantic contributing author and writer of the Third Rail publication explains why he chooses to hold a gun and what he appreciates about America’s gun tradition.
4. “The Story of a Gun” by Erik Larson (1993)
Gunmakers are in a position to market their merchandise for his or her killing energy, whereas dodging accountability for a way they is likely to be used, Larson wrote in our January 1993 cowl story.
5. “How one can Persuade Individuals to Give Up Their Weapons” by David Frum (2021)
The pandemic led to a surge in gun possession, our employees author studies. Can Individuals be satisfied to vary course?
6. “When Was the Final Time American Youngsters Have been So Afraid?” by Joe Pinsker (2019)
Within the Household part, our reporter seems to be on the results of mass-shooting drills on American kids: “These lockdowns will be scarring, inflicting some youngsters to cry and moist themselves.”
7. “Seven Autumns of Mourning in Newtown” by Carol Ann Davis (2019)
A resident of Newtown, Connecticut, describes what it’s wish to mourn every fall: “In these weeks between Halloween and the anniversary of the tragedy, even from my very own distance from the occasions of that day, I discover it laborious to face up, laborious to go on.”
8. “The False Promise of Gun Management” by Daniel D. Polsby (1994)
“Weapons don’t enhance nationwide charges of crime and violence—however the continued proliferation of gun-control legal guidelines virtually actually does,” Polsby argued within the mid-’90s.
9. “A Lynch Mob of One” by Ibram X. Kendi (2019)
“Stopping right now’s lynch mob includes eradicating the assault rifle from his palms and the rifle of racist concepts from his thoughts,” our contributing author argued after the 2019 capturing in El Paso, Texas.
10. “Why Can’t the U.S. Deal with Gun Violence as a Public-Well being Drawback?” by Sarah Zhang (2018)
An modification to a 1996 invoice limits what the CDC can research, and has “had a chilling impact on all the subject for many years,” our science reporter notes.
11. “The Secret Historical past of Weapons” by Adam Winkler (2011)
“The Founding Fathers instituted gun legal guidelines so intrusive that, have been they operating for workplace right now, the NRA wouldn’t endorse them,” Winkler studies in his article on how the gun-control debate has distorted historical past.
12. “The Bullet in My Arm” by Elaina Plott (2018)
Our then–employees author describes her personal brush with gun violence: being hit by a bullet whereas driving close to her house in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
13. “The Youngsters of the Youngsters of Columbine” by Ashley Fetters (2019)
Survivors of the 1999 mass capturing on the Colorado highschool are actually “sufficiently old to have kids of their very own,” and which means they’ve to speak to their youngsters about issues like lockdown drills, a then–employees author Fetters studies.
14. “The ‘Unlucky Household’ of American Capturing Survivors” by Julie Beck (2017)
“Survivor-to-survivor connections can change into a refuge for these affected by gun violence,” one Atlantic senior editor wrote following the 2017 capturing in Las Vegas.
15. “Why Can’t Democrats Go Gun Management?” by Stephen Gutowski (2021)
“The impasse isn’t the results of the NRA paying off politicians to vote towards the desires of their constituents,” the founding father of The Reload, a publication that covers firearm coverage, studies. “It’s a lot less complicated than that.”
16. “The Certainty of Extra Shootings” by James Fallows (2012)
“I’m an optimist about most issues, however not about this,” the longtime Atlantic contributor writes.
