On Writing About Gun Violence by Gary Younge

Gary Younge’s Another Day in the Death of America is a meticulously researched and deeply human portrait of American childhood presided over by the long shadow of gun violence. We asked him about some of the most surprising elements of his investigation.

What were the 5 things you found most surprising in researching and writing Another Day in the Death of America?

When you ask people who’ve lost loved ones why they think there are so many fatal shootings, almost nobody mentions guns.

Every black parent I interviewed had long-assumed there was a chance their child might get shot, whether they were involved in criminal activity or not.

None of the parents of these children who were killed had any meaningful contact with the gun-control movement.

Of the black children killed, most of their friends I spoke to knew someone else who had also been killed by gunfire.

The frequency with which the parents were blamed for their children’s gun-related deaths, effectively being told that, if they had been better parents, their children would still be alive.

Gary Younge is the editor-at-large for the Guardian. His book Another Day in the Death of America is available now.