Long Way Down centers on a Black American teenager whose community endures extreme levels of gun violence. While gun violence is a major issue across the United States, it has a disproportionate impact on Black communities that have been historically segregated and under-resourced.
Although Black Americans make up 13.6 percent of the U.S. population, they are ten times more likely than white Americans to be killed with guns, with 12,179 Black Americans who died by gun homicide in 2020 compared to 7,286 white Americans. Black Americans are also three times more likely than white Americans to be fatally shot by police. According to Everytown Research & Policy, police shoot a Black American dead at least every other day.
Gun violence statistics also show that Black Americans between the ages of 15 and 34 account for 38 percent of gun homicides despite representing only two percent of the U.S. population. Black youth are four times more likely than white youth to be killed by guns, while Black males specifically are eighteen times more likely to be killed by gun homicide than white males.
Advocates for reducing gun violence see disproportionate rates of gun-related homicides and injuries and police shootings in Black communities as a product of long-standing racial inequality. A combination of weak gun laws, inadequate access to education and employment, and underinvestment in public infrastructure in poor communities of color has contributed to the problem.
While street outreach and violence intervention programs have helped reduce rates of gun violence in some communities, advocates encourage politicians to support greater funding for victims of crime, police reform, the repeal of Stand Your Ground Laws, and stronger federal gun-trafficking laws to keep illegal guns off city streets.
