CANTON, Ohio— Don Ackerman was checking on some vacant homes that his church is refurbishing when a 6-year-old boy in the neighborhood began talking about how gunfire doesn’t frighten him. “My mom tells me to stay back, because gunshots can go through the wall,” the boy said, standing in his yard strewn with bikes and toys on a recent October afternoon. “I don’t get scared at all. They’re not very loud.”

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