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Examine gun violence in the U.S. with “Ricochet: An American Trauma” from The PBS Newshour – Oct. 5 at 10 pm
< < Back toPBS NewsHour Primetime Special “Ricochet: An American Trauma” Explores the Gun Violence Crisis
Wednesday, October 5 at 10 pm
The PBS NewsHour special “Ricochet: An American Trauma” will air on PBS on Wednesday, October 5th at 10:00 p.m. and on NewsHour’s social platforms, including YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. The one-hour documentary, hosted by PBS NewsHour’s correspondent William Brangham, will explore the three most common forms of gun violence in this country, community shootings, suicide and mass shootings, as well as the far reach of the trauma of these events into the community.
In 2020, more than 45,000 Americans died as a result of gun-related injuries, the highest number on record. Guns became the greatest cause of mortality for American children. So far this year, there have been over 400 mass shootings in the United States, including tragedies in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas.
America’s decades-long epidemic of gun violence has resulted in a distinct sort of communal trauma. It is felt by survivors of shootings, victims’ relatives and friends, first responders, community members, and people across the country who watch events develop on television and social media.
The primetime special includes interviews with:
Ryane Nickens, who lost family members to gun violence in Washington, DC and founded the TraRon Center, which helps families, and children in particular, cope with the trauma of gun violence.
Dan “Danno” Hedrick, who lost his brother to gun suicide in 2011 and is active in leading counseling groups for suicide loss survivors, and working on suicide prevention efforts in his hometown of Cheyenne, WY.
Sandy and Lonnie Phillips, who lost their daughter in the 2012 Aurora, CO theater massacre and have made it their calling to travel to the scenes of other public massacres to offer immediate support to families.
Jennifer Carlson, Associate Professor at the School of Sociology and School of Government & Public Policy at the University of Arizona.
Joseph Richardson, Jr., The Joel and Kim Feller Professor and MPower Professor of African-American Studies and Anthropology at the University of Maryland.
Dr. Emmy Betz, Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and the co-founder of the Colorado Firearm Safety Coalition, a group bringing together the firearms industry and public health researchers to prevent gun suicides.