Shootings, Virginia Tech and a Citizen Journalism Idea
As we all know the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech claimed 32 victims. Hundreds, thousands of news reports were written about it. I read many of them. However, the gun story that struck me the most was tucked away on the back page of the New York Times Sunday Week in Review section. It was a chart illustrating:
In 2004, the most recent year for which figures are available, an average of about 81 people died everyday from gunfire in the United States. All told, 29,569 people were killed that year by firearms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Another 64,389 were injured, about 176 per day.
Imagine 81 people shot to death each day. 176 injured each day by gunfire.
That might be an the biggest untold story in America. The chart showed the deaths by ethnicity, age and by murder and suicide, but, of course, if was just a cursory look. To me this would be the perfect citizen journalism project. At the beginning of a year, citizens from all over the USA could, from government paperwork and with the help of a major news publication, report on each death. Perhaps when the American public sees the person by person accounting, they will demand a new set of public policies, or perhaps not, but at least they will have all the facts.
