
Children Under Fire
An American Crisis
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $24.29
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Graham Halstead
-
By:
-
John Woodrow Cox
About this listen
One of The New York Times' 16 New Books to Watch for in March
One of Publishers Weekly’s Most Anticipated Books of the Year
One of Newsweek’s Most Highly Anticipated Books of The Year
One of Buzzfeed’s Most Anticipated Books the Year
Based on the acclaimed series - a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize - an intimate account of the devastating effects of gun violence on our nation’s children, and a call to action for a new way forward
In 2017, seven-year-old Ava in South Carolina wrote a letter to Tyshaun, an eight-year-old boy from Washington, DC. She asked him to be her pen pal; Ava thought they could help each other. The kids had a tragic connection - both were traumatized by gun violence. Ava’s best friend had been killed in a campus shooting at her elementary school, and Tyshaun’s father had been shot to death outside of the boy’s elementary school. Ava’s and Tyshaun’s stories are extraordinary, but not unique. In the past decade, 15,000 children have been killed from gunfire, though that number does not account for the kids who weren’t shot and aren’t considered victims but have nevertheless been irreparably harmed by gun violence.
In Children Under Fire, John Woodrow Cox investigates the effectiveness of gun safety reforms as well as efforts to manage children’s trauma in the wake of neighborhood shootings and campus massacres, from Columbine to Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Through deep reporting, Cox addresses how we can effect change now, and help children like Ava and Tyshaun. He explores their stories and more, including a couple in South Carolina whose 11-year-old son shot himself, a Republican politician fighting for gun safety laws, and the charlatans infiltrating the school safety business.
In a moment when the country is desperate to better understand and address gun violence, Children Under Fire offers a way to do just that, weaving wrenching personal stories into a critical call for the United States to embrace practical reforms that would save thousands of young lives.
©2021 John Woodrow Cox (P)2021 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
-
Trigger Points
- Inside the Mission to Stop Mass Shootings in America
- By: Mark Follman
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's time to go beyond all the thoughts and prayers, misguided blame on mental illness, and dug-in disputes over the Second Amendment. Through meticulous reporting and panoramic storytelling, journalist Mark Follman chronicles the decades-long search for identifiable profiles of mass shooters and brings listeners inside a groundbreaking method for preventing devastating attacks. Eight years in the making, Trigger Points illuminates a way forward at a time when the failure to prevent mass shootings has never been more costly—and the prospects for stopping them never more promising.
-
-
this book is one of many to be read on this topic
- By NC on 11-15-22
By: Mark Follman
-
The Violence Project
- How to Stop a Mass Shooting Epidemic
- By: Jillian Peterson, James Densley
- Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Violence Project is about an examination of the phenomenon of mass shootings in America and an urgent call to implement evidence-based strategies to stop these tragedies. Using first-person accounts from the perpetrators themselves, along with data from the writers’ groundbreaking research on mass shooters, The Violence Project charts new pathways to prevention and innovative ways to stop the social contagion of violence.
-
-
Very insightful, apolitical, and well written
- By mk_89 on 09-18-21
By: Jillian Peterson, and others
-
Sandy Hook
- An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth
- By: Elizabeth Williamson
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman, Elizabeth Williamson
- Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on hundreds of hours of research, interviews, and access to exclusive sources and materials, Sandy Hook is Elizabeth Williamson’s landmark investigation of the aftermath of a school shooting, the work of Sandy Hook parents who fought to defend themselves, and the truth of their children’s fate against the frenzied distortions of online deniers and conspiracy theorists.
-
-
Not What I Thought
- By Andrea C. Shebuski on 03-13-22
-
Gunfight
- My Battle Against the Industry That Radicalized America
- By: Ryan Busse
- Narrated by: Ryan Busse
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A former firearms executive pulls back the curtain on America's multibillion-dollar gun industry, exposing how it fostered extremism and racism, radicalizing the nation and bringing cultural division to a boiling point.
-
-
Outstanding
- By Kyle Turner on 10-27-21
By: Ryan Busse
-
Poverty, by America
- By: Matthew Desmond
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages?
-
-
A testimonial based on facts and witness
- By Alonzo Nightjar on 03-27-23
By: Matthew Desmond
-
Newtown
- An American Tragedy
- By: Matthew Lysiak
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
12/14/2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School Newtown, Connecticut We remember the numbers: 20 children and 6 adults, murdered in a place of nurture and trust. We remember the names: Teachers like Victoria Soto, who lost her life protecting her students. A shooter named Adam Lanza. And we remember the questions: Outraged conjecture instantly monopolized the worldwide response to the tragedy, while the truth went missing. Here is the definitive journalistic account of Newtown.
-
-
Good, but no Columbine
- By Carisa on 04-30-17
By: Matthew Lysiak
-
Trigger Points
- Inside the Mission to Stop Mass Shootings in America
- By: Mark Follman
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's time to go beyond all the thoughts and prayers, misguided blame on mental illness, and dug-in disputes over the Second Amendment. Through meticulous reporting and panoramic storytelling, journalist Mark Follman chronicles the decades-long search for identifiable profiles of mass shooters and brings listeners inside a groundbreaking method for preventing devastating attacks. Eight years in the making, Trigger Points illuminates a way forward at a time when the failure to prevent mass shootings has never been more costly—and the prospects for stopping them never more promising.
-
-
this book is one of many to be read on this topic
- By NC on 11-15-22
By: Mark Follman
-
The Violence Project
- How to Stop a Mass Shooting Epidemic
- By: Jillian Peterson, James Densley
- Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Violence Project is about an examination of the phenomenon of mass shootings in America and an urgent call to implement evidence-based strategies to stop these tragedies. Using first-person accounts from the perpetrators themselves, along with data from the writers’ groundbreaking research on mass shooters, The Violence Project charts new pathways to prevention and innovative ways to stop the social contagion of violence.
-
-
Very insightful, apolitical, and well written
- By mk_89 on 09-18-21
By: Jillian Peterson, and others
-
Sandy Hook
- An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth
- By: Elizabeth Williamson
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman, Elizabeth Williamson
- Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on hundreds of hours of research, interviews, and access to exclusive sources and materials, Sandy Hook is Elizabeth Williamson’s landmark investigation of the aftermath of a school shooting, the work of Sandy Hook parents who fought to defend themselves, and the truth of their children’s fate against the frenzied distortions of online deniers and conspiracy theorists.
-
-
Not What I Thought
- By Andrea C. Shebuski on 03-13-22
-
Gunfight
- My Battle Against the Industry That Radicalized America
- By: Ryan Busse
- Narrated by: Ryan Busse
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A former firearms executive pulls back the curtain on America's multibillion-dollar gun industry, exposing how it fostered extremism and racism, radicalizing the nation and bringing cultural division to a boiling point.
-
-
Outstanding
- By Kyle Turner on 10-27-21
By: Ryan Busse
-
Poverty, by America
- By: Matthew Desmond
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages?
-
-
A testimonial based on facts and witness
- By Alonzo Nightjar on 03-27-23
By: Matthew Desmond
-
Newtown
- An American Tragedy
- By: Matthew Lysiak
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
12/14/2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School Newtown, Connecticut We remember the numbers: 20 children and 6 adults, murdered in a place of nurture and trust. We remember the names: Teachers like Victoria Soto, who lost her life protecting her students. A shooter named Adam Lanza. And we remember the questions: Outraged conjecture instantly monopolized the worldwide response to the tragedy, while the truth went missing. Here is the definitive journalistic account of Newtown.
-
-
Good, but no Columbine
- By Carisa on 04-30-17
By: Matthew Lysiak
-
Rampage Nation
- Securing America from Mass Shootings
- By: Louis Klarevas
- Narrated by: Christopher Price
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the past decade, no individual act of violence has killed more people in the United States than the mass shooting. This well-researched, forcefully argued book answers some of the most pressing questions facing our society: Why do people go on killing sprees? Are gun-free zones magnets for deadly rampages? What can we do to curb the carnage of this disturbing form of firearm violence?
-
-
Depressing, but Inciteful Facts we should all know
- By Andrew A. on 08-02-18
By: Louis Klarevas
-
The Deepest Well
- Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity
- By: Dr. Nadine Burke Harris
- Narrated by: Dr. Nadine Burke Harris
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two-thirds of us have experienced at least one adverse childhood experience, or ACE, such as abuse, neglect, parental substance dependence, or mental illness. Even though these events may have occurred long ago, they have the power to haunt us long into adulthood, and now we have found that they may even contribute to lifelong illness. Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, the founder/CEO of the Center for Youth Wellness and recipient of the Arnold P. Gold Foundation Humanism in Medicine Award, expands on similar topics as in her popular TED talk.
-
-
A waste of time.
- By Sharrie DeCouto on 06-13-18
-
Parkland
- Birth of a Movement
- By: Dave Cullen
- Narrated by: Dave Cullen, Robert Fass
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the first anniversary of the events at Parkland, the acclaimed, New York Times best-selling author of Columbine offers an intimate, deeply moving account of the extraordinary teenage survivors who became activists and pushed back against the NRA and feckless Congressional leaders - inspiring millions of Americans to join their grassroots #neveragain movement.
-
-
10 Hours of Gen Xer in Awe of Gen Z
- By Incog Neat Oh on 02-22-19
By: Dave Cullen
-
The Sum of Us
- What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
- By: Heather McGhee
- Narrated by: Heather McGhee
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Heather McGhee’s specialty is the American economy—and the mystery of why it so often fails the American public. From the financial crisis of 2008 to rising student debt to collapsing public infrastructure, she found a root problem: racism in our politics and policymaking. But not just in the most obvious indignities for people of color. Racism has costs for white people, too. It is the common denominator of our most vexing public problems, the core dysfunction of our democracy and constitutive of the spiritual and moral crises that grip us all.
-
-
Good book but Recording tech is poor. Glitches
- By Jeannepup on 02-25-21
By: Heather McGhee
-
Unthinkable
- Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy
- By: Jamie Raskin
- Narrated by: Jamie Raskin
- Length: 15 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this searing memoir, Congressman Jamie Raskin tells the story of the forty-five days at the start of 2021 that permanently changed his life—and his family’s—as he confronted the painful loss of his son to suicide, lived through the violent insurrection in our nation’s Capitol, and led the impeachment effort to hold President Trump accountable for inciting the political violence.
-
-
Must reading/listening for every American who has despaired of losing our democracy.
- By Shirley Anderson on 01-06-22
By: Jamie Raskin
-
A Mother's Reckoning
- Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy
- By: Sue Klebold
- Narrated by: Andrew Solomon, Sue Klebold
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walked into Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Over the course of minutes, they would kill 12 students and a teacher and wound 24 others before taking their own lives. For the last 16 years, Sue Klebold, Dylan's mother, has lived with the indescribable grief and shame of that day. How could her child, the promising young man she had loved and raised, be responsible for such horror? And how, as his mother, had she not known something was wrong?
-
-
Sad, but, Ultimately, Self-Serving
- By Gillian on 02-19-16
By: Sue Klebold
-
Confidence Man
- The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America
- By: Maggie Haberman
- Narrated by: Maggie Haberman
- Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Few journalists working today have covered Donald Trump more extensively than Maggie Haberman. And few understand him and his motivations better. Now, demonstrating her majestic command of this story, Haberman reveals in full the depth of her understanding of the 45th president himself, and of what the Trump phenomenon means.
-
-
This is the only one you have to read
- By Amazon Customer on 10-06-22
By: Maggie Haberman
-
Lessons from the Covid War
- An Investigative Report
- By: COVID Crisis Group
- Narrated by: Derek Shetterly
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Our national leaders have drifted into treating the pandemic as though it were an unavoidable natural catastrophe, repeating a depressing cycle of panic followed by neglect. So a remarkable group of practitioners and scholars from many backgrounds came together determined to discover and learn lessons from this latest world war. Lessons from the COVID War is plain-spoken and clear sighted. It cuts through the enormous jumble of information to make some sense of it all and answer: What just happened to us, and why? And how, next time, could we do better? Because there will be a next time.
-
-
Great, but more is needed...
- By Michael on 06-28-23
-
Healing a Community: Lessons for Recovery after a Large-Scale Trauma
- By: Melissa Glaser MS LPC
- Narrated by: Linda Jones
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The tragedy of large-scale trauma has etched the names of cities on a national monument of heartbreak and senseless loss. First responders, caregivers, and civic leaders are often left with the daunting task of navigating the emotional and physical aftermath and stitching their communities back together, a trajectory of healing that can take months and years.
-
The Scheme
- How the Right Wing Used Dark Money to Capture the Supreme Court
- By: Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Jennifer Mueller
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Following his book Captured on corporate capture of regulatory and government agencies, and his years of experience as a prosecutor, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse here turns his attention to the right-wing scheme to capture the courts, and how it influenced the Trump administration's appointment of over 230 "business-friendly" judges, including the last three justices of the United States Supreme Court.
-
-
Dysfunctional democracy explained
- By Mark on 10-25-22
By: Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, and others
-
Why Kids Kill
- Inside the Minds of School Shooters
- By: Peter Langman PhD
- Narrated by: Matthew Josdal
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ten years after the school massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado, school shootings are a new and alarming epidemic. While sociologists have attributed the trigger of violence to peer pressure, such as bullying and social isolation, prominent psychologist Peter Langman, argues here that psychological causes are responsible. Drawing on 20 years of clinical experience, Langman offers surprising reasons for why some teens become violent. Langman divides shooters into three categories, and he discusses the role of personality, trauma, and psychosis among school shooters.
-
-
Excellent
- By Bob Van Horn on 02-17-23
-
A Sacred Oath
- Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times
- By: Mark T. Esper
- Narrated by: Joe Knezevich
- Length: 20 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From June of 2019 until his firing by President Trump after the November 2020 election, Secretary Mark T. Esper led the Department of Defense through an unprecedented time in history—a period marked by growing threats and conflict abroad, a global pandemic unseen in a century, the greatest domestic unrest in two generations, and a White House seemingly bent on breaking accepted norms and conventions for political advantage. A Sacred Oath is Secretary Esper’s unvarnished and candid memoir of those extraordinary and dangerous times, and includes events and moments never before told.
-
-
Boring. Lots of excuses.
- By Dennis on 05-11-22
By: Mark T. Esper
What listeners say about Children Under Fire
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Customer
- 06-14-22
Great book
Excellent use of qualitative ethnographic techniques to bring the points home. Hard not to visualize based on the description. Sent me to the March for Our Lives rally in DC
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kelly Traver Selling
- 04-19-21
Intelligent summary of how American gun violence is devastating its children
Articulate, powerful, thought-provoking and painful.
I sincerely hope this book can help push forward badly needed policies that so obviously will save lives.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- J R
- 07-01-24
Impactful
A sobering view of what happens to the survivors of gun violence. The author gains close access to the families and delivers a powerful, raw and impactful story.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- D's List
- 04-16-21
Unfortunately this is a sad but true story.
Unfortunately this is a sad but true story. I couldn't stop listening although it was hard at times because it made me emotional. Poor babies that have to go through such situations.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Noda RN
- 05-30-22
Listen up
Every teacher, parent , politician should be required to read this book. I truly had no idea the horror of the events had such effects or so many who survive
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- CWP93
- 04-26-21
Excellent and necessary
Should be required reading for every American. Timely, accurate, heart-wrenching. We need this now more than ever.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Natalia Pane
- 03-27-22
Important read if care about children's health
As now the leading cause of death for our teens (having surpassed motor vehicle accidents in the last few years), anyone who cares about children's health should read this book. This book isn't an easy read in the sense that the author does an excellent job of telling the stories, often in their own words, of the children left behind with lingering effects of gun violence. Yet it is an important read, especially for all those who do not feel the daily effects.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- EllKar
- 05-07-24
Informative and heart breaking
The author does a great job of not only story telling and helping you to learn the individuals impacted, but also showcasing unimaginable facts. The book is very well written, and provides a compelling call to action without using any extremes. Would highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Denise
- 04-11-21
What about the kids that are left behind?
In this climate of gun violence the kids/families that are left behind share THEIR stories with John Woodrow Cox. It is a must read for everyone on both sides of the aisle!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Rechelle Nguyen
- 03-26-23
Must listen!
Gives insight to the unseen side effects of gun violence and culture in this country. We have to do something.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!