Guns & America

Guns & America is a groundbreaking national reporting collaborative in which 10 public media newsrooms train their attention on a singular issue: the role of guns in American life.

Over the course of two years, the 10 stations, representing a diverse range of communities all over the country, will report on how guns impact us as Americans, from the cultural significance of hunting and sport shooting, to the role guns play in suicide, homicide, mass shootings and beyond.

Operating across broadcast and online platforms, the Guns & America team will approach the topic of guns with nuance, accuracy, imagination, and innovative cross-platform storytelling. Expect to see our reporting online and to hear memorable stories on a public radio station near you.

The 10 public media stations participating in Guns & America:

WAMU - Washington, D.C.
WNPR - Hartford, Connecticut
WUNC - Chapel Hill, North Carolina
WABE - Atlanta
ideastream - Cleveland
KCUR - Kansas City, Missouri
KERA - Dallas
KUNC - Greeley, Colorado
Boise State Public Radio - Boise, Idaho
OPB - Portland, Oregon

The reporter for Guns & America at KUNC is Leigh Paterson.

‘Is There A Gun In Your Home?’ No One Is Teaching Doctors How To Ask

About a hundred students at the Emory School of Medicine gathered during lunch earlier this fall, scarfing down their meal before a panel discussion. They came, on their own time, to learn how to talk to their future patients about gun safety. They only had an hour.

As Gun-Debates Rage Nationwide, Idaho Politicians Campaign To Prove They Will Not Be Outgunned

There’s a lot of talk about guns in political campaigns this year, much of it focused on regulations aimed at preventing mass shootings. But in states like Idaho, where well over half the population has guns, politicians on all sides are angling to be the most firearms-friendly candidate.

D.C.'s Aggressive Confiscation Of Illegal Guns Leaves Residents Feeling Targeted

Few police departments are better at confiscating illegal guns than Washington, D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department. Every day, teams of officers, often driving unmarked cars, scour the streets looking for people who might be carrying a firearm.

Assaults Involving Firearms On The Rise In Colorado

By Leigh Paterson • Oct 24, 2018

Our partners at Guns & America wanted to better understand crimes involving guns in Colorado, so they analyzed 15 years worth of crime data , sent into the state by dozens of law enforcement agencies. Within that dataset, assaults and robberies are the offenses that included "firearm"' as a subcategory.

50 Years Since Landmark Gun Control Act — Where Are We Now?

By Alana Wise • Oct 22, 2018

At the signing of the U.S. Gun Control Act on Oct. 22, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson hailed the bill as the first step in disarming “the criminal, and the careless, and the insane.”