S5 Ep. 27: ‘Gun Violence Has Traumatized All of Us’: Amye Archer on the Long History of Mass Shootings

fiction/non/fiction

Writer and educator Amye Archer joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss her 2019 anthology, If I Don't Make It, I Love You: Survivors in the Aftermath of School Shootings, co-edited with Loren Kleinman. Archer explains how hearing the heartbreaking details of loss can prevent us from glossing over the staggering trauma of these events. Archer also reads from the anthology’s section on the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, and questions why, as a nation, we haven’t changed the Second Amendment in response to modern weapons.

To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/.

This podcast is produced by Anne Kniggendorf.

Selected Readings:

Amye Archer

• If I Don't Make It, I Love You: Survivors in the Aftermath of School Shootings (pre-order paperback)
• “Holding the Pain,” Longreads, July 2019

Others:

• Gun Violence Archive
• “What to Know About the School Shooting in Uvalde, Texas,” | The New York Times | May 30, 2022
• “Medical Worker Rushed to Escape 'Labyrinth' of Offices in Tulsa,” by Alex Traub | The New York Times | June 2, 2022
• “Gunman Kills 10 at Buffalo Supermarket in Racist Attack,” | The New York Times | May 17, 2022
• “California Church Shooting Was 'Hate Incident,' Sheriff Says,” by Livia Albeck-Ripka, Shawn Hubler and Eduardo Medina | The New York Times | May 16, 2022
• Full Transcript: Biden's Speech on Gun Control - The New York Times
• “From Sandy Hook to Uvalde, the Violent Images Never Seen,” by Elizabeth Williamson | The New York Times | May 30, 2022
• “For Uvalde, Caskets Adorned in Childhood Dreams,” by Emily Rhyne and Mark Abramson | The New York Times | June 2, 2022
• “The Fourth State of Matter,” by Jo Ann Beard | The New Yorker, June 17, 1996
• Elephant (2003) dir. Gus Van Sant
• “Gun Violence, #NeverAgain and the Power of Teenage Protest,” Jim Shepard and Danielle Evans, Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 1, Episode 12
• New York Times Sunday Review tweet of gun violence graphic

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