Isn’t a part of childhood feeling insecure and divining ways to resolve those feelings or else abide them? From Mitchell S. JacksonThe presence of gangs — mind you, a predictable symptom of poverty and neglect — led to the prevalence of guns that shaped much of the normal childhood maturing around me as a kid. It surprises me little to none that Black boys are the likeliest to die by guns. These guns alter their lives in significant ways, not in the least by nullifying the childhood grace of feeling the greatest distance from death. Amen, I’ve never had to sit him down for a stern talk on guns or the violence and grieving they reap.

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