Review: Another Day in the Death of America

Another Day in the Death of America by Gary Younge
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a remarkably written and researched piece of non-fiction by an author until now unknown to me. The thought process behind this book is to show the number of un-reported or little reported deaths of children in America during a 24 hour period.

Although a lot of assumptions could be made on the reason for this number, this book does not solely focus on the massive and undeniable involvement of the National Rifle Association in continuing to expand and promote gun ownership in the USA but also its strong political holding which makes it sadly inevitable that gun reform at the current time is continually blocked based on the Second amendment "Right to Bear Arms" and a number of cultural circumstances too.

I strongly believe that these types of books surrounding our current history should be introduced into the history curriculum in schools, it is an ever growing pandemic that children are exposed to guns and gun violence, not only through daily life, but through tv/film, video games and many other forums.

I believe this book strongly supports the reason for maintaining our UK Laws on guns and although crimes by guns in the UK rose in 2015 by 14% to 574 cases as reported in The Guardian at the beginning of the year this also included knife crime in those statistics. It is still a pertinent reminder to us all of the impact and increase in violence that occurs with the presence of a gun.

America proposes that all men are equal however, the economic circumstances have little changed however, for the African American and Hispanic communities.

America is more class-ridden than ever before in their history. The discrepancy between the wealth and income of white and black communities is greater now that it was at the time of Washington 1963 and that certain schools in the South are more segregated now than in the last 40 years.

Kids from under privileged backgrounds who do everything by the book still appear to be held back, whilst their white counterpart rich kid who is constantly in trouble appear to still reap all the benefit why is that?

Some Americans believe that these communities should take responsibility for improving their own lives however, it is hard for their voice to have any impact when they feel segregated into a small area of a City which therefore attracts a degree of criminality which seems to then justify the segregation in the eyes of their white counterparts.

It is well established in America that the victims of most crimes are of the same race as those who commit them. This means that the black American is therefore conforming to their stereo type, rather than contradicting the criminal patterns where race is concerned.

As seen in the recent news reports from the USA in 2016 vulgar levels of racism and police brutality are still rife in their country today, it is almost like they have become numbed to the fact this is deemed acceptable on any level!

America has more guns than any other country in the world. Some would say much of these are in rural America and considered part of everyday life both recreationally and practically however, there are still viable options to secure the use of these weapon's.

Even a Presidential memo's requesting the research of cause and prevention has been blocked. I don’t believe anyone has said there should be no guns, just hugely improved security and licencing regulations which is clearly developed and available, such as child-proofing and loading measures.

I can go on and on about this subject thanks to the amazing amount of research and informative quotes included in this book.

This is a 5* must read for everybody in my opinion and I believe this also supports the most recent #blacklivesmatter campaign too.


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