July 17, 1989: Death By Gun
By Nick Carbone @nickcarboneJan. 15, 201312
There was no single shooting that inspired this special portfolio. Instead, the sheer number and variety of homicides included within were meant to be the shocking part. From May 1 to May 7, 1989, TIME tracked every fatal shooting in the United States, presenting all 464 in an exhaustive list — along with photos of the victims and their stories, in an attempt to humanize the tragedies. The victims were killed by their own gun or by someone else’s, by accident or on purpose, and they came from all over: that week, only eight states reported zero gun deaths. California had the highest number, with 68. The cover story estimated that by the end of that year, the total number of gun fatalities in the U.S. would reach 30,000 — a statistic that remained nearly unchanged in 2011.
