An interview with Steve James and Alex Kotlowitz, directors of a new documentary on the shocking prevalence of violent crimes in inner-city America.

The drug war in Mexico has hit affluent, formerly stable cities that were once protected from the violence. The US’s role in this? Supplying the weapons and demanding the drugs.

The drug war in Mexico has hit affluent, formerly stable cities that were once protected from the violence. The US’s role in this? Supplying the weapons and demanding the drugs.

Gunned down in Tucson, shot to death at the Pentagon and blown away at the Holocaust Museum, as well as in Wichita, Knoxville, Pittsburgh, Brockton and Okaloosa County, Florida, the landscape of America is littered with bodies.

The shootings underscore that a strong social compact is the only real route to safety.

Has it really come to this: an uphill battle to ban a gun that has no purpose except to kill thirty-three people before anyone can stop you?

Eric Alterman, columnist for The Nation, and the author of the new book Kabuki Democracy: The System vs. Barack Obama, appeared on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show to comment on the shooting in Arizona, his book and President Barack Obama.

The attack on Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson was an assault on democracy.

Jeff Biggers appears on Democracy Now! to talk about the assassination attempt on Congresswoman Giffords in Arizona, what it was like to grow up in a "gun state," and how this act of violence might impact the state of Arizona.

Jeff Biggers appears on Democracy Now! to talk about the assassination attempt on Congresswoman Giffords in Arizona, what it was like to grow up in a "gun state," and how this act of violence might impact the state of Arizona.