-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 0
/
index.html
634 lines (519 loc) · 49.8 KB
/
index.html
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Firearms in the Family</title>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<meta name="description" content="The role guns play in American lives">
<meta name="author" content="Digital First Media">
<link href="css/bootstrap.css" rel="stylesheet">
<link type="text/css" href="css/gunskids.css" rel="stylesheet" >
<link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Roboto:400,900' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>
<!-- HTML5 shim and Respond.js IE8 support of HTML5 elements and media queries -->
<!--[if lt IE 9]>
<script src="../../assets/js/html5shiv.js"></script>
<script src="../../assets/js/respond.min.js"></script>
<![endif]-->
</head>
<body data-spy="scroll" data-target=".navbar">
<div id="skrollr-body">
<!--FB STUFF-->
<div id="fb-root"></div>
<script>(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1&appId=278973778787146";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script>
<div id="dfmHeader" class="hidden-xs"></div>
<div style="clear:both"> </div>
<!--
<div class="hidden-sm" style="background-color:#CCC; width:100%; height: 200px"></div>
-->
<div class="navbar navbar-inverse navbar-fixed-top" role="navigation" id="stickynav" data-0="position:static;display:none;" data-1760="position:fixed;top:0;display:block">
<div class="container">
<div class="navbar-header">
<button type="button" class="navbar-toggle" data-toggle="collapse" data-target=".navbar-collapse">
<span class="sr-only">Toggle navigation</span>
<span class="icon-bar"></span>
<span class="icon-bar"></span>
<span class="icon-bar"></span>
</button>
<a class="navbar-brand" href="#menu"><span id="propname"></span><span class="bartitle">Firearms in the Family</span></a>
</div>
<div class="collapse navbar-collapse">
<ul class="nav navbar-nav">
<li><a href="#opencarry">Open Carry</a></li>
<li><a href="#plea">Mother's Plea</a></li>
<li><a href="#rodeo">Rodeo Queen</a></li>
<li><a href="#hunters">The Hunters</a></li>
<li><a href="#gentle">Gentle Revenge</a></li>
<li><a href="#grief">Channeling Grief</a></li>
</ul>
</div><!--/.nav-collapse -->
</div>
</div>
<a name="thetop"></a>
<h1 id="thetitle">Firearms in the Family</h1>
<div class="col-md-8 col-md-offset-2" id="desc">
<h2>The role guns play in American lives</h2>
<h4>Stories by Bianca Prieto and videos by David Freid, Digital First Media</h4>
</div>
<div style="clear:both"></div>
<div id="vidConTease">
<iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/81393385" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div>
<div id="shareCon">
<!--SOCIAL SHARING-->
<div id="tw-share"><a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="http://data.digitalfirstmedia.com/guns" data-count="none" data-text="The role guns play in American lives">Tweet</a>
<script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');</script>
</div>
<div class="fb-like" data-href="http://data.digitalfirstmedia.com/firearms" data-width="60" data-height="20" data-colorscheme="light" data-layout="button_count" data-action="like" data-show-faces="false" data-send="false"></div>
</div>
<!--END SOCIAL SHARING-->
<div id="introtext" class="col-md-8 col-md-offset-2 col-sm-10 col-sm-offset-1">
<p>These are stories of young people and families across America, many of whom share little in common, except that their lives have been changed, for better or worse, by guns.</p>
<p>Digital First Media spent several months this year traveling the country, meeting families and learning what part firearms play in the lives of their children.</p>
<p id="descEmbed">Scroll down to meet Ken Herman, who is determined to protect himself and his child from whatever may come; Alicia Glover, who is trying — and failing — to keep even the thought of guns out of her home; Brooke Lane, a sharpshooting rodeo queen who’s top of her high school class; John Ireland, who feeds his family thanks to his skill with a rifle; Griffin Dix, who used the law to fight back after a tragic accident; and Marilyn Harris, who lost a son and now helps others to bury theirs.</p>
</div>
<div style="clear:both"></div>
<div class="continue" id="menu">
<p>Select a story below or scroll down to continue</p>
<img src="img/down-arrow.gif" alt="scroll down" />
</div>
<!--THUMB NAVIGATION-->
<div id="gridCon">
<div class="row">
<div class="navItem col-md-4 col-sm-4 col-xs-6">
<div class="potterCon" id="n1" data-id="1" data-anchor="opencarry">
<img class="img-responsive potter" src="img/anesi2.gif" alt="Open Carry"/>
<div id="th1" class="readprompt">Meet Ethan's family</div>
</div>
<p class="navTitle">Open Carry</p>
</div>
<div class="navItem col-md-4 col-sm-4 col-xs-6">
<div class="potterCon" id="n2" data-id="2" data-anchor="plea">
<img class="img-responsive potter" src="img/glover.gif" alt="A Mothers Plea"/>
<div id="th2" class="readprompt">Meet Alicia Glover</div>
</div>
<p class="navTitle">A Mother's Plea</p>
</div>
<div class="navItem col-md-4 col-sm-4 col-xs-6">
<div class="potterCon" id="n3" data-id="3" data-anchor="rodeo">
<img class="img-responsive potter" src="img/lane.gif" alt="The Rodeo Queen"/>
<div id="th3" class="readprompt">Meet Brooke Lane</div>
</div>
<p class="navTitle">The Rodeo Queen</p>
</div>
<div class="navItem col-md-4 col-sm-4 col-xs-6">
<div class="potterCon" id="n4" data-id="4" data-anchor="hunters">
<img class="img-responsive potter" src="img/ireland.gif" alt="The Hunters"/>
<div id="th4" class="readprompt">Meet John Ireland</div>
</div>
<p class="navTitle">The Hunters</p>
</div>
<div class="navItem col-md-4 col-sm-4 col-xs-6">
<div class="potterCon" id="n5" data-id="5" data-anchor="gentle">
<img class="img-responsive potter" src="img/dix.gif" alt="A Father's Gentle Revenge"/>
<div id="th5" class="readprompt">Meet Griffin Dix</div>
</div>
<p class="navTitle">A Father's Gentle Revenge</p>
</div>
<div class="navItem col-md-4 col-sm-4 col-xs-6">
<div class="potterCon" id="n6" data-id="6" data-anchor="grief">
<img class="img-responsive potter" src="img/harris2.gif" alt="Channeling Grief"/>
<div id="th6" class="readprompt">Meet Marilyn Harris</div>
</div>
<p class="navTitle">Channeling Grief</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<!--END THUMB NAVIGATION-->
<!-- BEGIN STORY -->
<div id="opencarry" class="titleCon">
<h5>— Open Carry —</h5>
<h3>Raising children on the shooting range</h3>
</div>
<div id="vidCon1" class="vidCon">
<iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/81393386" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div>
<div id="story1" class="storyCon col-lg-12">
<div class="textCon col-md-8 col-md-offset-2 col-sm-10 col-sm-offset-1">
<p>There's no need to ask Jen Anesi her views on gun ownership — a glance will do.</p>
<p>A small pistol nestled inside a pink paddle holster is secured on her right hip and "Protected By Ruger" is emblazoned on the rear window of her lime green Ford Fiesta.</p>
<p>The gun-toting 30-year-old southeastern Michigan single mom believes it's important to teach her young son the value of shooting, self-protection and the Second Amendment.</p>
<p>On a late summer evening Anesi loaded up her 7-year-old son Ethan Williams and headed out to the Bald Mountain Shooting range, a 15-minute drive from her home in Rochester Hills, a suburb north of Detroit. </p>
<p>Moments after she arrived, Anesi's boyfriend, Ken Herman, and his 7-year-old daughter Haley pulled up in a Ford Mustang. Herman also carried a gun on his hip.</p>
<div class="inset insetgraphic">
<img class="img-responsive" src="img/graphic-opencarry.gif" alt="graphic"/>
<p class="source">Source: opencarry.org</p>
</div>
<p>Anesi and Herman are part of the "open carry" movement — Americans who exercise their Second Amendment rights by keeping guns with them at all times while they're in public, and make sure they're visible to people around them. Forty-five states allow for some form of open carry, with only Texas, South Carolina, Illinois, New York and Washington, D.C., having outright bans, according to OpenCarry.org.</p>
<p>And both Anesi and Herman strongly believe that guns should play an important role in their children's lives, too.</p>
<p>It cost $10 each for the couple to enter the large outdoor shooting range, but the youngsters shoot for free. Within minutes, Anesi and Herman have arranged several long-barrel weapons on a partially covered seating area where the children will practice their shooting skills.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Haley and Ethan chased each other in small circles, poking at each other and playing a short-distance game of tag. Occasionally, Ethan made loud noises, amused that he can hear himself over the din of the other shooters while wearing protective earmuffs. Basically, the two acted like any pair of 7-year-olds would act after spending their first day at school — a little bit wound up.</p>
<p>But that behavior soon stopped cold. In a flash, Ethan and Haley are transformed into perfect pupils. Quiet, attentive and focused. It was time to shoot.</p>
<p>Coached by his mother, Ethan methodically loaded the .22 caliber bullets into an antique firearm. He's committed to memory the three basic safety rules of shooting: always assume the gun is loaded; never point the barrel at anything you don't intend to shoot; and look at your target and beyond it.</p>
<p>Ethan pressed his cheek against the rifle, lined up the iron sights and slowly pulled the trigger. His small body jostled slightly from the recoil.</p>
<p>"It's like a water balloon splashing on your stomach," Ethan said, describing the moment he pulls the trigger on the rifle.</p>
<p>The gun he shot was a gift from his great-grandfather. It's a family gun that is 10-times Ethan's age.</p>
<p>Peering over his shoulder, Anesi encouraged her son.</p>
<p>"Good job," she said. "Two more left."</p>
<p>A few seats away, Haley concentrated on the target several dozen feet in front of her. Wearing bright pink shooting earmuffs and pink safety goggles, the small-framed second grader peered through the scope and gently pulled the trigger.</p>
<div class="inset">
<img class="img-responsive" src="img/opencarry1.jpg" alt=""/>
<p class="source">Ken Herman with his daughter Haley on the range. (Ben Garvin/Digital First Media)</p>
</div>
<p>"It's almost a bull's-eye!" she announced to her dad, who earlier promised her a chocolate-vanilla ice cream if she hit the center of the target.</p>
<p>"Good shot Haley! Do it again," said Herman, who was crouched behind her for support and direction.</p>
<p>Haley knows that shooting is not a game and a gun is not a toy. Her father made sure she memorized safety rules and was comfortable with an unloaded firearm before she was allowed to go to the shooting range.</p>
<p>"I like shooting because it makes me feel kind of proud," Haley said during a short break. "When I get a bull's-eye it makes me happy."</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>'My pistol is on me'</strong></p>
<p>Anesi and Herman met during a rally for a man who was wrongfully arrested for openly carrying a gun in nearby Birmingham, Mich.</p>
<p>"If I'm not drinking a beer, in the shower or at work, my pistol is on me," Herman said, as he touched the firearm strapped to his hip. </p>
<p>He works as a paramedic in a neighboring county and isn't allowed to carry a firearm while on duty, he said.</p>
<p>While most of the time the pistol doesn't present a problem for Herman, the day he took Haley shooting, it did. As he checked her out of her elementary school a little early that day, he wore the gun on his hip. School officials noticed and asked him to leave, he said.</p>
<p>When he refused, Herman said, school administrators called the local sheriff's office for assistance. A Michigan law allows properly licensed gun owners to openly carry firearms inside school buildings. A Michigan politician is <a href="http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2013/09/bills_looking_to_change_laws_a.html" target="_blank">now working to change that law</a>. </p>
<p>Herman said he recorded the entire incident on a personal security camera he wears on his belt.</p>
<p>In the end, he said, deputies allowed him to leave the school without incident. Herman thought it was over, but later that night he received a voicemail with an automated call from the school.</p>
<p>On the recording, the principal announced that a parent had entered the school that day with a gun. Deputies were called to "gain compliance" and the event ended peacefully, she said.</p>
<p>Herman said he felt like the situation was blown out of proportion. Calls to the Edgerton Elementary School and Clio County School District were not immediately returned.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Teaching self-protection</strong></p>
<p>Teaching their children to shoot and respect guns came naturally to Anesi and Herman, who were taught to shoot as kids.</p>
<p>It's like teaching them anything else about safety, Herman said: You teach children not to touch a stove because it's hot; you teach them to wear a seatbelt in the car; and you teach them about guns because they can be deadly if mishandled.</p>
<p>"Education is extremely important" to defeat the fear of an inanimate object, like a gun, Herman said.</p>
<p>Herman taught Haley to shoot "in case I die before she starts dating," he said. </p>
<p>"She's an incredibly good shot," Herman said, later admitting his freckle-faced daughter is better at shooting than he was at her age.</p>
<p>Herman sees teaching Haley to use a gun as a chance to bond and create memories that she can cherish as an adult.</p>
<p>He also sees it as a skill, for himself and Haley, for self protection.</p>
<p>"I know there is evil in this world, and I want to give myself a fighting chance," he said.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Focus on safety</strong></p>
<p>Anesi grew up around firearms because her father is an avid collector. She was 8 the first time she shot a gun and has enjoyed shooting since then. It's both a pastime and a skill she wants Ethan to have.
<p>Anesi trusts that she will keep her son safe from guns while in their home, because she keeps them locked up. She's more concerned with what could happen if he encounters a gun outside of their home.</p>
<p>"What are you supposed to do if you find a gun at a friend's house, Ethan?" Anesi asked.</p>
<p>"Mom," Ethan groaned. "You ask me this all the time."</p>
<p>But the boy answers his mother: "You don't touch it and you tell an adult."</p>
<p>His exposure to guns may have sparked a future career for Ethan.</p>
<p>"When I'm older, I can protect myself," he said. "I can be a police officer and protect the city."</p>
<p class="backtotop"><a href="#menu">back to top</a></p>
</div>
</div><!--END STORY-->
<div style="clear:both"></div>
<!-- BEGIN STORY -->
<div id="plea" class="titleCon">
<h5>— A mother’s plea against guns —</h5>
<h3>‘Suburbia shouldn’t be a war’</h3>
</div>
<div id="vidCon2" class="vidCon">
<iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/81394042" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div>
<div id="story2" class="storyCon col-lg-12">
<div class="textCon col-md-8 col-md-offset-2 col-sm-10 col-sm-offset-1">
<p>"There's a gun here, and here and here," 5-year-old Thomas Glover said, pointing at translucent Legos sticking out from various points of the spaceship he built in his Michigan home. "There's even bullets!"</p>
<p>The words "gun" and "bullets," are taboo in his family, but he used them enthusiastically, without any worry that he'd be punished — mostly because his mother was out of earshot.</p>
<p>His mother Alicia, a native of Australia, despises guns and the gun culture that surrounds her family in Rochester Hills. She lives in a suburb north of Detroit — one of the most violent cities in the United States.</p>
<div class="inset insetgraphic">
<img class="img-responsive" src="img/graphic-310.gif" alt="graphic"/>
<p class="source">Source: Congressional Research Service</p>
</div>
<p>Intense feelings on both sides of the gun rights debate have caused her to lose friends and question her family's decision to live in the United States.</p>
<p>"Suburbia shouldn't be a war, it should be laughter and fairy floss," Alicia Glover said. "People [here] think that it's OK to shoot someone."</p>
<p>She and her American husband, Jeff, met in 1999 while working together at a restaurant in Australia.</p>
<p>When they married and moved to the U.S., shortly before Thomas was born, they made a commitment to raise their children with dual cultures — American and Australian — with the hope of one day returning to Alicia's homeland.</p>
<p>In the Glover household jackets are called jumpers, diapers are called nappies and the closet is a cupboard. Jeff has even picked up a bit of an Australian accent, easily recognizable to non-family members.</p>
<p>They also follow another Australian tradition: no guns.</p>
<p>Alicia, a naturalized U.S. citizen, finds herself in a distinct minority in her adopted nation. Despite a string of recent mass killings, including the massacre of 20 students and six adults in Newtown, Conn., a year ago, fewer than 50 percent of all Americans believe that gun laws need to be tightened, according to a Gallup poll taken in October. Twenty-six percent of respondents believe private handgun ownership should be banned — a record low.</p>
<p>Alicia has taught Thomas and his younger brother, 4-year-old Callum, that guns are bad, guns kill and guns are not allowed in their home — not in thought, word or deed. Toy guns, real guns, water guns and even fingers pointed like guns — are all forbidden.</p>
<p>"It's the thing I hate about living here," Alicia said. "I hate that the gun culture is so strong here."</p>
<p>Though Jeff now agrees with his wife's stance on guns, he grew up in Michigan with firearms being part of his life. He first shot a BB gun when he was in elementary school, but said he didn't take an interest in firearms.</p>
<p>Alicia's first experience with firearms was much different.</p>
<p>She vividly recalls when her country abolished the right to own firearms after a mass shooting. In 1996, a 29-year-old man went on an all-day rampage with an assault rifle in a tourist spot on the Australian island of Tasmania. Thirty-five people were killed and more than 20 others were wounded in the attack.</p>
<p>The Australian government quickly passed a slew of gun restrictions and matched them with buybacks to remove existing guns from circulation.</p>
<p>There have been no mass shootings in Australia since then.</p>
<p>It mystifies Alicia that Americans continue to own guns when mass shootings occur several times a year.</p>
<p>And Alicia wasn't convinced before of the need for a total ban on weapons in the U.S., the events at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012, gave her certainty. </p>
<p>"Irrespective of constitutional rights, people have human rights," she said, adding that children should be able to go to school without the threat of being murdered.</p>
<p>It wasn't until she moved to Michigan that she got her first close look at a gun. Once, when Callum was a toddler, he cut his head open after taking a fall. The family called 911 and within minutes a sheriff's deputy and paramedics arrived.</p>
<p>The deputy carried his service weapon on his hip when he entered her home, and it terrified Alicia.</p>
<p>"I couldn't take my eyes off of it," she said. "I thought it was going to fall out and go off. I didn't want it in the house."</p>
<p>That's the only time a real firearm has been inside her home.</p>
<p>The children aren't even exposed to American television, mostly because of what Alicia views as violent content, even in children's programming, and some commercials.</p>
<div class="inset">
<img class="img-responsive" src="img/plea1.jpg" alt=""/>
<p class="source">Legos belonging to Alicia Glover's two young sons are transformed into spaceships armed with guns. (David Freid/Digital First Media)</p>
</div>
<p>Occasionally, the boys are allowed to watch a Star Wars-inspired Lego cartoon DVD — but only when mom is at work and dad is in charge. The animated, G-rated violence still makes Alicia cringe.</p>
<p>Alicia has had a tough time finding a social circle that she relates to since moving to the U.S. six years ago. A group of girlfriends she made was so focused on gun rights it made her uncomfortable.</p>
<p>She wept as she recalled the friendships ending and discussed her feelings of isolation in her adopted country.</p>
<p>"They were so extreme in their opinions, there was not room for me to navigate my feelings," she said. "It's not a line in the sand, it's the Grand Canyon."</p>
<p>Hearing her son describe the imaginary weaponry adorning his Lego ship, Alicia is floored.</p>
<p>"Guns are awesome," Thomas said. "Spooky and good."</p>
<p>When prompted by his mother to explain why guns are good, his words stunned her.</p>
<p>"Like when a guy hops out of a very dark tunnel and goes [screeching noises]," Thomas said.</p>
<p>"Whoa! Where did that come from?" she asked. "Did someone talk to you about it or did you see something like it?"</p>
<p>His answer is no.</p>
<p>"I didn't expect him to say anything like that. It's blown my mind," Alicia said. "I have no idea where he's come up with that vision."</p>
<p class="backtotop"><a href="#menu">back to top</a></p>
</div>
</div><!--END STORY-->
<div style="clear:both"></div>
<!-- BEGIN STORY -->
<div id="rodeo" class="titleCon">
<h5>— Girl for all seasons —</h5>
<h3>A crack shot, honor student and rodeo queen</h3>
</div>
<div id="vidCon3" class="vidCon">
<iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/81234323" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div>
<div id="story3" class="storyCon col-lg-12">
<div class="textCon col-md-8 col-md-offset-2 col-sm-10 col-sm-offset-1">
<p>Brooke Lane raised the pistol in front of her, looked straight down the sights and fired.</p>
<p>Crack! Crack! Crack!</p>
<p>In the wide-open space of her family farm in northeastern Colorado, the sound of the gunshots didn't linger.</p>
<p>The 17-year-old strode over to the target she had affixed to bales of hay stacked 10 feet high to check her work. Bull's-eye.</p>
<div class="inset">
<img class="img-responsive" src="img/rodeo1.jpg" alt=""/>
<p class="source">Lane poses with her rifle. (David Freid/Digital First Media)</p>
</div>
<p>"Firearms are a huge part of my life," Brooke said. "I've grown up shooting, I look forward to hunting every year… and a [big part] of hunting is going out target shooting and making sure that I'm sighted in ... It's a pretty major aspect in what I spend my time doing."</p>
<p>The near perfect shots didn't surprise her; they're more of a testament that she's still on top of her game. The high school senior has been shooting since she was 8, winning competitions with guns and bows.</p>
<p>"At school a lot of my friends are exposed to guns," she said. "On a weekly basis we discuss doing something, whether we all want to go shooting that weekend, or someone did, or it's hunting season."</p>
<p>Her family has long been a member of the National Rifle Association and attends banquets for Friends of the NRA, she said.</p>
<p>Brooke and her family's positive view of firearms is shared by a large number of people outside America's cities. In fact, where people live is a pretty good predictor of their feelings about guns. A Gallup poll taken in 2011 found that 65 percent of people living in rural areas own guns; that figure drops to 42 percent if only handguns are taken into consideration.</p>
<div class="inset insetgraphic">
<img class="img-responsive" src="img/graphic-households.gif" alt=""/>
<p class="source">Source: 2011 Gallup poll</p>
</div>
<p>Only 21 percent of people living in large cities own guns, while the overall ownership rate is four out of every 10 Americans, according to the same poll.</p>
<p>But Brooke's parents weren't trying to make a political point when they enrolled her in a hunter's safety class when she was in elementary school. She's killed several large game animals during the last nine years, and some of her prizes are mounted inside her home.</p>
<p>Brooke's trophies don't all come with antlers, though.</p>
<p>She's also an honor student at Weld Central High School near Keenesburg, Colo., a small town about 30 miles northeast of Denver, and slated to be the class valedictorian in the spring. She works four days a week at the Pepper Pod, a family eatery in nearby Hudson, Colo.</p>
<p>As a member of her local 4-H chapter, a science and agricultural based club, she has shown prize-winning pigs at the various fairs around Colorado and Kansas. Brook also heads her school's Future Farmers of America chapter.</p>
<p>In ticking off her extracurricular activities, her face lights up.</p>
<p>"Oh! And I'm a rodeo queen! I rodeo and I'm a rodeo queen!"</p>
<p>Last summer, Brooke was crowned the 2013 Queen of the Southeast Weld County Fair and Rodeo. The year before she was titled the Lady in Waiting. </p>
<p>"I went through an interview process, and they tested me on my basic riding skills," she said. "I represent my community and my fair and rodeo as a rodeo queen, and lots of little kids look up to me."</p>
<p>A scrapbook has pictures of Brooke with fancy hair and makeup, wearing oversized, decorative chaps and a cowboy hat. It hardly looks like the girl with the ponytail who was shooting a pistol outside just a few minutes before.</p>
<p>"I definitely grew up as a tomboy," Brooke said. "My dad kind of got the best of both worlds because I can definitely be a girly-girl and like to dress up, but my dad got to do all the things that you would [normally] expect with a boy, like go shooting and go hunting."</p>
<div class="inset">
<img class="img-responsive" src="img/rodeo2.jpg" alt=""/>
<p class="source">Lane takes care of animals on the family farm. (David Freid/Digital First Media)</p>
</div>
<p>And living on the farm with her single father has taught her the responsibilities of caring for the family's livestock — twice a day she feeds and looks after the numerous animals, including several horses, two goats, a pig and two piglets, three dogs and a barn kitten that recently adopted the family.</p>
<p>Inside her father's home, various animals are mounted on the walls — trophies earned by Brooke and her dad — while hunting equipment cluttered the front entryway and materials to make fly fishing ties rest on the table.</p>
<p>For this rural farmer's daughter, guns are an inherent part of who she is and she sees defending her Second Amendment rights as vitally important.</p>
<p>Last year, Brooke was one of 44 students from across the United States selected to attend an all-expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C., hosted by the NRA for its Youth Education Summit.</p>
<p>She was chosen after writing an essay on the Second Amendment, taking a critical eye to both sides of the gun control debate. Brooke was shocked her high school civics textbook included only two sentences about the right to bear arms, while devoting paragraphs to the other items in the Bill of Rights.</p>
<p>Brooke's group toured the NRA headquarters, shot guns on their range and later toured the monuments in the nation's capital. The students also participated in organized debates about guns and gun rights.</p>
<p>"I researched both sides, and understand there are arguments to the other side," Brooke said.</p>
<p>But she knows which side she's on.</p>
<p class="backtotop"><a href="#menu">back to top</a></p>
</div>
</div><!--END STORY-->
<div style="clear:both"></div>
<!-- BEGIN STORY -->
<div id="hunters" class="titleCon">
<h5>— The Hunters —</h5>
<h3>A family with a taste for tradition - and venison</h3>
</div>
<div id="vidCon4" class="vidCon">
<iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/81230730?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div>
<div id="story4" class="storyCon col-lg-12">
<div class="textCon col-md-8 col-md-offset-2 col-sm-10 col-sm-offset-1">
<p>Troy Boggs faces several rites of passage over the next year: high school graduation, starting college and — he hopes — bringing down a buck to help feed his family.</p>
<p>The 18-year-old high school senior from Pueblo, Colo., has lived "in-town" his entire life, but packaged meat that's been sitting on refrigerated supermarket shelves doesn't have much of a place on his family's dinner table.</p>
<p>They're hunters.</p>
<p>"Runs all the way through the family. It's awesome," Boggs said.</p>
<div class="inset insetgraphic">
<img class="img-responsive" src="img/graphic-reasons.gif" alt=""/>
<p class="source">Source: Pew Research Center, 2013</p>
</div>
<p>Boggs and his family members are among more than 10 million people who hunt big game in the United States every year, according to the federal <a href="http://www.fws.gov/hunting/huntstat.html" target="_blank">Fish and Wildlife Service</a>. There are nearly 270,000 hunters in Colorado alone, out of the state's population of 5 million.</p>
<p>Though both of Boggs' parents are city employees who earn decent salaries — his stepdad, John Ireland, is a firefighter, and his mom, Kim Ireland, is a 911 dispatcher — they prefer "an old- fashioned lifestyle" and the taste of venison over ground beef, John Ireland said.</p>
<p>Kim Ireland's father was a state trooper in southern Colorado who earned a small salary and hunted to supplement the family's food supply. Her husband was raised on a cattle ranch and taught to shoot as a young boy by his father and grandfather.</p>
<p>"It's part of our heritage, that's what we grew up doing," John Ireland said. "It's what our ancestors did and we feel like it's important to pass that tradition and that heritage on to our kids."</p>
<p>On a recent autumn weekend, Boggs and his stepdad drove a few hours southwest of their home searching for a buck. But after two full days of hunting, the men came back empty handed.</p>
<p>"So far I've been kinda unlucky, but you don't give up, you've gotta keep trying," Boggs said.</p>
<p>That's something he learned early on in life, along with how to hold a gun.</p>
<p>And that's how things should be, John Ireland believes.</p>
<div class="inset">
<img class="img-responsive" src="img/hunters1.jpg" alt=""/>
<p class="source">John Ireland poses with his hunting rifle. (David Freid/Digital First Media)</p>
</div>
<p>When his kids were old enough to handle a firearm — at age 5 or 6 — Ireland taught them to shoot. His biological children are now grown, with his daughter a military wife and his son in the U.S. Air Force. His wife's children from a previous marriage, Boggs and his adult sister, were raised in the same manner in Ireland's home since 2001, when the couple married.</p>
<p>"I always kept a gun, unlocked and loaded, in my house. I'd keep it right there by the bed," John Ireland said. "I taught my kids to respect it and not touch it. They listened."</p>
<p>Today, everyone in this blended family hunts and everyone shoots. The parents. The sons. The daughters. They keep guns in their house for protection. They use them for hunting. They hone their skills with target shooting. </p>
<p>It's also the basis for the décor inside their modest split-level home on a curved street in a middle-class neighborhood. </p>
<p>Antlers are mounted on the entryway wall, and a stuffed antelope trophy head keeps watch over the living room. The family's three freezers are jam-packed with deer meat.</p>
<p>Each set of antlers is an important part of the family history, they said. Each trophy tells a story and brings back a memory. One is a reminder of the time a few years ago when Boggs shot the antelope, his first and only big-game kill.
<div class="inset">
<img class="img-responsive" src="img/hunters2.jpg" alt=""/>
<p class="source">A photo with Troy Boggs after he killed an antelope. (David Freid/Digital First Media)</p>
</div>
<p>He was shaking with adrenaline as he steadied his aim and finally took the shot. The bullet hit the animal near its shoulder, killing it instantly. John Ireland helped the boy to clean out the entrails, preserving the heart and liver (because those are good to eat, Boggs said) and then skinned it. The meat helped feed the family that winter.</p>
<p>Boggs' biological father, Trent Boggs, was so proud of his son that he sent the antelope's head to a taxidermist and had it mounted.</p>
<p>In this family, though, traditions aren't only about fathers and sons. When Kim Ireland brought down an elk during a family hunting trip, the men were happy to applaud.</p>
<p>"I was there when she brought down the cow elk, and before that I'd never seen her hunt or shoot. I'd only heard stories about what a good shot she was," Boggs said. "I think it's awesome my mom is a hunter. You don't really meet too many moms who like to hunt and get in there and do the work. It's great, it's fantastic."</p>
<p class="backtotop"><a href="#menu">back to top</a></p>
</div>
</div><!--END STORY-->
<div style="clear:both"></div>
<!-- BEGIN STORY -->
<div id="gentle" class="titleCon">
<h5>— Gentle Revenge —</h5>
<h3>After his son’s fatal accident, man fights to make weapons safer</h3>
</div>
<div id="vidCon6" class="vidCon">
<iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/81230737" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div>
<div id="story6" class="storyCon col-lg-12">
<div class="textCon col-md-8 col-md-offset-2 col-sm-10 col-sm-offset-1">
<p>Kenzo Dix rests at the top of a beautiful hill overlooking the San Francisco Bay. As the sun falls, the scene is tranquil.</p>
<p>It's a late summer evening and his father has come to visit, bearing flowers and words that are spoken only in his heart. It's been a few months since Griffin Dix was last here, and he takes time to wipe the blades of grass and dirt from his son's flat grave marker.</p>
<p>Nearly 20 years ago, Kenzo, a freshman at Berkeley High School in northern California, was buried here at Sunset Memorial Garden, the victim of a gun accident. His father lives in Kensington, within walking distance of the graveyard, but his visits have become less frequent over the years.</p>
<p>"We loved Kenzo very, very much," Dix said.</p>
<p>The tragedy Dix endured is one that affects a new family every two and a half days in this country, on average. Between the years 1999 and 2010, approximately 1,900 children were accidentally killed with a firearm, according to the <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/FIREARM_DEATHS_AND_DEATH_RATES.pdf" target="_blank">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention</a>.
<div class="inset">
<img class="img-responsive" src="img/gentle1.jpg" alt=""/>
<p class="source">Griffin Dix in his home office. (David Freid/Digital First Media)</p>
</div>
<p>Those are the numbers, but this is Kenzo's story.</p>
<p>It was a Sunday afternoon in May 1994 when Kenzo, an artist and basketball player, was killed. He'd spent most of the day with a teacher, creating graffiti art in an abandoned handball court near his high school, Dix said. Afterward Kenzo asked to go to his friend's house.</p>
<p>Hours later, the hospital called.</p>
<p>"The doctor came out and said there was nothing he could do," Dix said. "All of our plans for our life were changed."</p>
<p>Earlier that afternoon, Kenzo's 14-year-old friend wanted to show off his father's semi-automatic Beretta pistol. The child, who had used the weapon before at a gun range with his dad, unloaded the full magazine and thought the pistol was safe.</p>
<p>When the boy walked into the room were Kenzo was waiting, he inserted an empty magazine into the gun and pulled the trigger, not knowing there was still a bullet in the chamber.</p>
<p>"You know [the boy] thought he had unloaded the gun," Dix said. "It was a semi automatic handgun and there was still a bullet in the chamber of the gun. So the bullet in the chamber went through my son's shoulder and into his heart.</p>
<p>"We knew the boy, and we knew it was not intentional."</p>
<p>A day after Kenzo was killed, Dix and his family visited the boy. The child was a wreck. He was still wearing the shirt smeared with Kenzo's blood, he hadn't slept and he was sweating, Dix said.</p>
<p>"We hugged him," Dix said. "We told him we knew it wasn't done on purpose."</p>
<p>The child who accidentally killed Kenzo pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter without malice and didn't serve any time. His record was expunged when he turned 18, according to published reports. Dix asked that the child's name not be published.</p>
<p>Dix was able to forgive the child who shot his son, but couldn't forgive the gun manufacturer that made the weapon. He decided to take action.</p>
<p>A former professor with a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology, Dix immersed himself in gun laws, learning the ways that guns are made and researching how to make them safer.
<div class="inset">
<img class="img-responsive" src="img/gentle2.jpg" alt=""/>
<p class="source">Dix continues to work to halt gun violence. (David Freid/Digital First Media)</p>
</div>
<p>"After Kenzo died, I discovered the many loopholes in our gun laws and met literally hundreds of other parents who, like me, had suddenly lost a child and were trying to figure out why," Dix said. "What we found astounded us. We all wanted to save the lives of children and to prevent other parents from going through what we had been through. That still motivates me today."</p>
<p>Though Dix's visits to the cemetery have become less frequent, he continues to work diligently on his son's behalf.</p>
<p>Books about guns and gun laws line the shelves in his bedroom. Filing cabinets in his study are filled with his research.</p>
<p>He joined and headed the local chapter of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence — named after Ronald Reagan's press secretary, who was severely wounded in an assassination attempt on the president in 1981. Dix also served on the board of directors for the Million Moms March.</p>
<p>He later brought a lawsuit against Berretta for not having a chamber-loaded indicator on its guns, a marker that could have saved his son's life, he believes.</p>
<p>He lost the case but California later passed a law that forced gun manufacturers to install the devices.</p>
<p>Despite his work to change how guns are made and to make them safer, Dix doesn't hate firearms. His father, a Virginian, encouraged him to take up shooting as a boy.</p>
<p>"It was a Southern tradition to give a gun to a young person," Dix said. "My father got me a single-shot rifle, took me to a shooting range and taught me how to use it."</p>
<p>Dix's own sons were exposed to shooting only once, on a summer camping trip. They were taught to use BB guns.</p>
<p>At the time of Kenzo's death, the Dix family didn't own a gun.</p>
<p>"I have mixed feelings about firearms," Dix said. "Many of them are unsafe by design … I think the gun industry is a threat to many American families."</p>
<p class="backtotop"><a href="#menu">back to top</a></p>
</div>
</div><!--END STORY-->
<div style="clear:both"></div>
<!-- BEGIN STORY -->
<div id="grief" class="titleCon">
<h5>— Channeling Grief —</h5>
<h3>Helping to navigate the grim aftermath of murder</h3>
</div>
<div id="vidCon5" class="vidCon">
<iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/81232023" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div>
<div id="story5" class="storyCon col-lg-12">
<div class="textCon col-md-8 col-md-offset-2 col-sm-10 col-sm-offset-1">
<p>The word on the streets of Oakland's east side got to Marilyn Washington Harris before she heard from the police.</p>
<p>The murmurs, whispers and rumors of that summer night more than a decade ago found their way to her ears: Her only son was gunned down on the streets.</p>
<p>She refused to believe it.</p>
<p>Three days after 18-year-old Khadafy Washington was killed, on the same day he would have started college, his body was identified by a long-healed scar left behind by a surgery he'd had as an infant.</p>
<p>That's when the rumors become Harris' reality; one that would be recognized by thousands of mothers of young black men killed by gunfire each year.</p>
<p>In 2010, more black children between the ages of 1 and 19 were killed by bullets than by car accidents, according to the <a href="http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publications/data/state-data-repository/protect-children-not-guns-key-facts-2013.pdf" target="_blank">Children's Defense Fund</a>.</p>
<p>The violent death of her only son led her into the living rooms and lives of hundreds of strangers in Alameda County, Calif. Months after her son's death, Harris formed the Khadafy Washington Foundation for Non-Violence.</p>
<div class="inset">
<img class="img-responsive" src="img/grief1.jpg" alt=""/>
<p class="source">A momento in Harris’ office. (David Freid/Digital First Media)</p>
</div>
<p>Harris works now as a gentle guide, ushering shell-shocked families through the bureaucratic aftermath of a murder.</p>
<p>"I was like a fish out of water," Harris said about her son's death. "We didn't know where to go or what to do. We were just stuck … We realized if we were in that predicament, there had to be others who were in that predicament."</p>
<p>Harris' first personal experience with a firearm occurred when her son was killed. Her father, a Vietnam veteran, was not a hunter and didn't allow guns in their home.</p>
<p>"That was something that we didn't have in the house because it's nothing to play with," Harris explained.</p>
<p>Raising children in California's second most deadly city was a challenge, but Harris tried her best to keep guns out of her kids' hands and warned them about others who were up to no good.</p>
<p>"There's always so much violence and we already knew that a gun is something that can hurt you," Harris said. "I told them to stay away from people with guns, because we know they are into bad things."</p>
<p>In 2012 Oakland, a notoriously crime-ridden city, recorded 126 homicides, 104 of which were firearm related, according to the Oakland Police Department. Los Angeles, a city with nearly 10 times the population, investigated 299 killings in 2012, according to the FBI's national crime survey.</p>
<p>"A gun is just an object by itself, but for some reason when some people pick it up, it gives those people the courage to be something other than what they are," she said. "It's not the gun that's the problem, it's the people who pick it up and decide to use it and make it do things that it's not meant to do — kill people."</p>
<p>On Friday, Aug. 4, 2000, someone picked up a gun and killed Harris' son. His killer has never been caught.</p>
<div class="inset">
<img class="img-responsive" src="img/grief2.jpg" alt=""/>
<p class="source">Despite Harris’ efforts, Khadafy’s killer has never been found. (David Freid/Digital First Media)</p>
</div>
<p>Washington was discovered lifeless outside of the east Oakland high school, where he'd been a star football player and graduated two months prior.</p>
<p>Before his death, Washington was playing dice with a few others at the school. He had about $2,000 cash in his pocket, his mother said. She had given him the money earlier the same afternoon, because he told her wanted to buy a new part for his car.</p>
<p>"No doubt he was killed for his money," Harris said.</p>
<p>In the days following her son's death, Harris struggled to understand the process that she now knows so well.</p>
<p>There was never a phone call notifying her of her son's death because of confusion caused when an acquaintance of Washington's allegedly used his name when he was booked into the local jail. Officers waited to make sure the body they had was correctly identified before calling anyone, Harris said.</p>
<p>When word finally did come that Washington was dead, Harris beat on the doors of the Alameda County morgue until someone finally answered. But it was only to tell her that the building was closed.</p>
<p>"You have my son in there!" she pleaded with the employee, who eventually let her in.</p>
<p>He led her up the stairs "in one of the state buildings that you [will] never forget," Harris said. She filled out some paperwork and waited for more than an hour.</p>
<p>When she realized the employee wasn't coming back, she let herself out.</p>
<p>"Growing up, he'd always say ‘everybody's gonna know about Khadafy,'" Harris said. "We always assumed it would be his football career. We had no idea it would have nothing to do with football."</p>
<p>Harris remembers her son telling jokes that she didn't find very funny. And in his senior photo, he rebelled by opting to wear a zipped-up hoodie instead of his cap and gown.</p>
<p>"He was not a mama's boy, but mama sure did love him," Harris said.</p>
<p>In the 13 years since the Khadafy Washington Foundation for Non-Violence was founded, Harris and her helpers have assisted hundreds of families in the Oakland area to navigate those early dark days after the death of a loved one.</p>
<p>She knows the owners of the local funeral parlors by name, and they call her when they are slow on business and offer "specials" for discounted funeral services.</p>
<p>Harris knows the paperwork that must be filled out to secure benefits for the uninsured, and how to shorten the bureaucratic process.</p>
<p>Most importantly, she truly understands the grief the families are feeling. The day Harris picked up her son's ashes from the crematorium, she buckled the package into the front seat of her van.</p>
<p>"It seems silly," she said, "but you always put a seatbelt on your child."</p>
<p class="backtotop"><a href="#menu">back to top</a></p>
</div>
</div><!--END STORY-->
</div><!--END SKROLLR-BODY-->
<div style="clear:both"></div>
<div style="padding:0px">
<div class="row" id="thefooter">
<p>Credits: Jason Fields, Ben Garvin, Nelson Hsu, Yvonne Leow, Courtney Wells / DFM
<br />© Copyright 2013
</p>
</div>
</div>
<!-- Bootstrap core JavaScript
================================================== -->
<!-- Placed at the end of the document so the pages load faster -->
<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
<script src="js/jquery.scrollTo-1.4.3.1-min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/jquery.lazyload.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/skrollr.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://local.denverpost.com/common/dfm/dfm-nav/dfm-nav-core.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/jquery.fitvids.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/gunskids.js"></script>
<script>
//LAZY LOAD
$("img.lazy").lazyload({
effect : "fadeIn",
threshold : 200
});
//END LAZY LOAD
</script>
<!--GOOGLE ANALYTICS-->
<script type="text/javascript">
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-37303540-1']);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
(function() {
var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
})();
</script>
<!--SCROLL ANALYTICS-->
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/jquery.scrolldepth.min.js"></script>
<script>
$.scrollDepth({
elements: ['#menu', '#gridCon', '#opencarry', '#plea', '#rodeo', '#hunters', '#gentle', '#grief' ]
});
</script>
</body>
</html>