Younge: It was an awareness based on films [and] news of mass shootings, which actually account for a relatively small number of deaths. The first time I ever was in America, I was on my way to Barbados, which is where my family is from originally. We missed our connection and we had to stay in Miami for a day. I was with my friend, who is white, and we thought about going downtown. All we knew about Miami was Miami Vice and that America was very segregated. We thought, “It’s just not worth the gamble.” So we stayed in the airport for 24 hours.

I knew there was a lethal element to social violence [in the United States] in a way there isn’t in Britain. I think Britain’s more violent. I think in Britain you’re more likely to be beaten up. If you go to many towns on a Friday or Saturday night, when the pubs close, they can be quite violent. I’ve just always felt like in America I’m more likely to get killed.

So I was aware of it, but I wasn’t aware of the extent of it. For quite some time, I would’ve assumed that mass shootings were a lot less common than they actually are. They just don’t all get reported. I would have assumed that most people who die in shootings die in mass shootings. Even though they are much more common than I assumed, that’s still not true. I would not have known that most people who die [from] guns shoot themselves. [The] awareness—this leads back to Miami Vice—was more gun violence as a spectacle than an endemic social factor.

Friedman: You lived in New York and Chicago for 12 years. When you think back on that period, what milestones would you cite in the evolution of your understanding of U.S. gun violence and gun culture?

Younge: I was sent to Florida to write about [President] Obama. He was set to give a speech and the Aurora [movie-theater] shooting happened. I can’t remember exactly what he said but it felt like what American presidents say: “Now is not the time for politics. Everybody go home and hug their children. Let’s all be together now. This is a tragedy.” I remember thinking that was wrong: This is during an election and people have been killed, this is not a one-off, it seems exactly like the time for politics to me—where you might talk about this because something can be done about it. I remember thinking nothing can change if nobody’s going to talk about it.

Then, within [five] months, came [the school shooting at] Sandy Hook. And I was struck that [Obama] did say something about it. Of course, Sandy Hook was after the election. He says, “We can’t go on like this.” I’m thinking, well, one of the reasons America does go on like this is because nobody wanted to talk about it.

I went to my first [National Rifle Association] convention in 2012 in St. Louis. I would say, “I’m British. I don’t understand this (which was true). Explain it to me.” The first thing they would say is, “Are you married? Do you have children? Imagine someone broke into your house. What are you going to do? You’re going to just sit there and wait for the police?” It was this brazen appeal to masculinity. It wasn’t anti-government, but [the notion was] you wouldn’t want to rely on your government for that. [It was an] almost vigilantist appeal.