Honey, lemon and gun violence

Journalist Gary Younge's Cultural Exchanges audience were a mix of nodding heads, contemplative “hmm”s and, to my pleasant surprise, laughter.

Whilst casually sipping hot honey and lemon, Younge delivered a talk based on his book, Another Day in the Death of America, in which he researched into the deaths of children and teenagers who had been killed by guns on one randomly selected day: Saturday, 23rd November 2013.

I was drawn to Younge's talk due to its current relevance and my own desire to learn more about the issue of gun control in America. But Younge addressed this “timeliness” that had been attributed to his book very early on in his speech.

“This is never not timely.”

These words struck me in particular. There were many other instances in which I felt appalled by my own ignorance. But as a speaker, Younge did not just deliver his haunting statistics and leave it at that.

He – while still handling the subject sensitively – brought a dry humour to the event that I had not expected. His anecdotes about NRA rallies and dinners with Republicans were in equal parts funny and alarming, and he engaged readily with the audience's questions towards the end.

At the end of the talk, people were eagerly lining up for book signings. The impact was clear; Younge had offered us an insight into a world so foreign to our own, and yet one so important for us to learn about.

Interested? Purchase his book here

Araminta Jürgen-Romrig

An American myth of freedom

7 children in America are killed by guns every day. Fact.

This is the ‘white noise’ in American news left unreported, and Gary Younge’s book, Another day in the death of America, takes just one of these many days, 23^rd November 2013.On that day ten children and teenagers were shot dead.

Younge makes it very clear - and does so especially to American audiences - that this book is not about gun control; it’s about what happens when there is no gun control in place. And in no other country would this book be possible.

When speaking to the families of these kids Gary Younge began by asking them “What is this about?”.  An open-ended question. And nobody mentioned guns. The notion of not having a gun within American society, to them, was unfathomable.

Younge then spoke on how every country has its own personal myths, and America’s is their view on freedom. Younge revealed he had once been told that, “You do not understand it because you are not free.” In the eyes of pro-gun Americans not having a gun not being free.

Younge’s analogy for how he believes that guns are not the initial problem was intriguing. The gun is only the spark residing on top of a huge pile of tinder. Beneath it lies poverty, racism and inequality. You add the gun on top and you finally see what happens.

The problem of firearms is therefore much deeper than Americans and the rest of the world would like to believe.

 

L.A. Smith

Every day in America ...

“Every day in America, on average, seven children and teens are shot dead.” This was one of many notable statements by award-wining journalist Gary Younge, who gave us an insightful view into the shooting culture in America.

His book, Another day in the death of America is not, as he says, about “gun control” but about a country where there is no gun control. Gary picked a random day (23/11/2013) and researched the deaths by shootings on that day. He discovered there had been 10 people aged between 9 and 19 shot dead on that day.

Gary’s research into the gun-related mentality of some American people provided captivating points, as when he quoted a victim’s parent saying “You aren’t doing your job as a black father in this city if you don’t think your child is going to be shot.”

Gary’s view on guns not being the whole picture is something I had not previously thought about. “The gun is the spark on top of a big pile of tinder" said Gary, pointing to "the racism, the inequality”. This was very thought-provoking; it hadn't occurred to me that the actual issue is the social divide in American society and that this needs to change for there to be real progress.

During questions at the end Gary made his feelings regarding armed guard and teachers at school known, “the answer to people getting shot is not more guns," he told us.

Read more about his book.

 

M.J.Dickinson