The NY Times published an article that effectively communicated just how our gun problem is playing out in the USA. The article linked here (is FREE for you!)
The article includes a stunning interactive map where you can search neighborhoods and zoom out to see how many gun related fatalities there were in the last 3 years.
Even more distressing is they also overlaid the racial demographics as a view option, so you can see who the primary victims of this gun violence are.
Spoiler alert… non-white residents in an city are more likely to be impacted.
Perhaps this is another reason for the stunning inaction of Washington?
Here the NY Times graphics editor for the article explains how they got the data, how it’s presented and the takeaways. I found his explanation very informative and worth the listen.
I must say as I navigated this map of deaths, zooming on my neighborhood, and the neighborhoods of friends and family to see the rating and pattern of homicides, it became hard to process that we would let this cancer spread across the entire country this way.
I almost felt like I was looking at the scan of a cancer patient that refused treatment. What will it take for our politicians to stop fomenting this sickness and legislate sensible gun policies?
There is no doubt our country has serious problems - guns being one of many. When I look at our political system, and the money that comes from large corporations to pay for votes, I do worry what it will take to get change to happen. Our politicians do not vote according to the desires, or even the needs of the people. They vote according to how much money is funneled their way from lobbyists. We are definitely living in challenging times.