Life on a hair trigger

In some U.S.

cities, gun violence is so common that it feels like a normal part of life rather than an exceptional event.

For example, in Chicago’s Garfield Park neighborhood, a young man’s risk of being killed between 2020 and 2021 was higher than that of a U.S.

soldier deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq.

By age 40, about half of Chicago’s Black and Hispanic residents will have witnessed someone being shot.

Violence is not evenly spread across cities—most shootings happen in a few dozen blocks and involve a small group of people, less than 1% of the population.

This means that while citywide crime rates may decline, those living in high-violence areas experience danger as an ongoing condition, not an occasional event.

The article highlights how this constant exposure shapes the way people think and act in their daily lives.