"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"-- Provided by publisher.

"I hate guns" : Ava, Tyshaun, and the bullets that changed them --"What happened to Jacob?" : Twelve seconds on a school playground and the town that would never be the same -- "I can't believe he went through with it" : Inside the mind of a teenage gunman -- " You have to separate the guns from the kids" : Children and the firearm safety myth -- "I hope my daddy's okay" : How gun violence leads to more trauma and trauma leads to more gun violence -- "It's nothing to get a gun" : The plague of illegal firearms -- "Can you stop violence?" : The NRA's faltering war on common sense -- "One day has ruined everything she does" : The agony of a school shooting survivor -- "Tell me when it's going to be normal" : A return to Townville Elementary -- "There's no guarantee I'm going to live" : When the help that children need never comes -- "It's more than just protecting children from bullet holes" : What campus lockdowns do to kids -- "Are you going to keep kids safe?" : How Ava found her voice -- "That's twenty-nine thousand dollars a kid" : The business of school security -- "Remember, you can't see daddy anymore" : Father's Day and the one who wasn't there -- "I cannot promise you that it will be easy" : Why some kids make it when others don't -- "Y'all understand each other" : Ava, Tyshaun, and the anguish that persists.