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Children Under Fire: An American Crisis – A Call to Action: Gun Violence, School Shootings, and the Path to Reform and Social Justice
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82/99
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Scholars
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Rating
77/99
Volume
98/99
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About This Book
Based on the acclaimed series—a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize—an intimate account of the devastating effects of gun violence on our nation's children, and a call to action for a new way forward In 2017, seven-year-old Ava in South Carolina wrote a letter to Tyshaun, an eight-year-old boy from Washington, DC. She asked him to be her pen pal; Ava thought they could help each other. The kids had a tragic connection—both were traumatized by gun violence. Ava's best friend had been killed in a campus shooting at her elementary school, and Tyshaun's father had been shot to death outside of the boy's elementary school. Ava's and Tyshaun's stories are extraordinary, but not unique. In the past decade, 15,000 children have been killed from gunfire, though that number does not account for the kids who weren't shot and aren't considered victims but have nevertheless been irreparably harmed by gun violence. In Children Under Fire, John Woodrow Cox investigates the effectiveness of gun safety reforms as well as efforts to manage children's trauma in the wake of neighborhood shootings and campus massacres, from Columbine to Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Through deep reporting, Cox addresses how we can effect change now, and help children like Ava and Tyshaun. He explores their stories and more, including a couple in South Carolina whose eleven-year-old son shot himself, a Republican politician fighting for gun safety laws, and the charlatans infiltrating the school safety business. In a moment when the country is desperate to better understand and address gun violence, Children Under Fire offers a way to do just that, weaving wrenching personal stories into a critical call for the United States to embrace practical reforms that would save thousands of young lives.
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Reviews
"The children's moving stories, together with views of experienced doctors and other experts, are likely to startle many readers, no matter where they stand on the gun issue ..."
"Balancing sound research with moving profiles of victims and activists, Cox makes an impeccable case for how to solve the problem and why it's essential to do so now."
"his surpassing achievement in this eloquent book is to let children speak for themselves about their grief ..."
"Washington Post reporter Cox dutifully shares gun-control statistics that have become wearily familiar, but he also zooms in to examine the personal impact of gun violence on a few specific kids."
"Cox's Children Under Fire: An American Crisis lays bare the human cost of things that cannot be counted when it comes to children and gun violence."
"What comes across with tragic clarity is that kids suffer terrible collateral costs from gun violence — and that suffering is too often overlooked ..."
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