This year’s Real America series presents three selections that explore America’s gun culture through snapshots of how different communities deal with violence. Real America is a production partnership between APM, BBC and the Association of Independents in Radio. The project offers independent producers the opportunity to showcase important stories to a global audience.

Broadcast Window: March 29 – June 30

Download: This program is available for download from the BBC Documentaries and Specials section of the American Public Media Content Depot Exchange.

Description: We take a look at three very different stories around gun control in the United States:

• Ruxandra Guidi hears from Sharletta Evans, an African American mother from Denver, who lost her 3 year old boy, Casson, in a drive by shooting some years ago. Sharletta ended up befriending the teenage killer’s mother and went on to forgive him and to campaign for his release from prison. She is now a very outspoken advocate of gang intervention and restorative justice in Colorado.
• Dmae Roberts and Skye Fitzgerald venture across Oregon in the wake of the Clackamas mall shooting, and hear about people’s fear of violence, rational or not, that drives the fierce opposition to gun control.
• It is a little known fact that in the United States more gun deaths are due to suicide than homicide. Kelly Jones and Lu Olkowski explore the legacy of one such suicide to find out what happened to the fiancée left behind, to friends, to the law enforcement officers and to the guns themselves.