In August of last year, the New York Times ran a story about how U.S. guns end up in other nations in Latin America and the Caribbean, and how often they are used to commit crimes and/or homicides. Link here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/25/world/americas/one-handgun-9-murders-how-american-firearms-cause-carnage-abroad.html
When reading the story, I was captivated by how the data in the story was weaved so seamlessly into the narrative, and how the figures provided revealed how often, and how quickly, U.S. manufactured firearms end up in Jamaica.
For starters, the story was able to trace back the origin of a U.S.-made gun that was used in 9 killings in Jamaica. The gun was named Briana by Jamaican police, which was used in the story and almost gave life to the firearm, as if a human character.
Excerpt:
"With few clues to identify her, the police named her Briana. They knew only her country of origin — the United States — where she had been virtually untraceable since 1991. She was a phantom, the eighth-most-wanted killer on an island with no shortage of murder, suffering one of the highest homicide rates in the world. And she was only one of thousands.
Briana, serial number 245PN70462, was a 9-millimeter Browning handgun."
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Throughout the story, data and statistics elucidate the connection between U.S. guns and murders in other countries. Additional data also shows the reader how a gun purchased in 1991 by a farmer in North Carolina ended up in the hands of a Jamaican gangster named Hawk Eye:
"Drawing on court documents, case files, dozens of interviews and confidential data from law enforcement officials in both countries, The Times traced a single gun — Briana — to nine different homicides in Clarendon, a largely rural area of Jamaica where violence has spiked in recent years.
More than 20 years after being sold in North Carolina, the handgun became one of the most lethal in Jamaica, the tool of a one-eyed gangster named Hawk Eye."
There is ample gun-related data throughout the story, which also examines gun policy and laws in both the U.S. and Jamaica, and explains -- by following the path of one gun -- the links between homicides in other countries and excessive gun production in the U.S.
Today, looking back at the story for the first time in a few months, I do think there is an opportunity for an interactive chart or graphic, perhaps that follows the path of the gun in the story, Briana. The story itself is riveting and the photos are excellent, though perhaps an interactive element could have provided an even more engaging read.