Special edition: Gun culture around the world

I talked with a Hong Kong protester today who goes by the name of Fish Cheng.

At the barricades

Host Marco Werman gets this special edition of The World started with a brief explanation of why our newsroom decided to focus on global gun culture. In short, we want to hear how the rest of the globe thinks about guns, and how the experiences of other nations can help us when it comes to responding to gun violence.

Why we're focusing on gun violence

Anders Breivik stormed a picturesque Norwegian summer camp in 2011. He methodically killed 69 people, many of them youngsters. Bjorn Ihler, a 20-year-old student, survived Breivik's killing spree. Ihler tells host Marco Werman in recent years he's sought out former extremists across the political spectrum, attempting to understand what mass murders have in common.

Lessons from a Norway massacre

The right to keep and bear arms is a constitutional right in the US. But only two other countries have constitutions that allow citizens to keep arms. Host Marco Werman speaks with Zachary Elkins of the University of Texas, Austin — a specialist in comparative constitutions.

Very few foreign constitutions speak to the right to keep and bear arms

Firearms have been a constant in the life of Salvadoran American Susan Cruz. Cruz explains to host Marco Werman how her childhood in a country at war and her teenage years in a street gang led to her current work with troubled youth on both sides of the border.

A lifetime of gun violence

A criminology professor looked at data for handgun ownership and for mass shootings in 171 countries. Marco Werman speaks with Adam Lankford of the University of Alabama about his study, which determined that the US has the most public mass shootings, and that the easy availability of weapons is the likely reason.

More guns means more mass shootings

Lydia Emmanouilidou and her sister Jen, who both immigrated to the US from Greece when they were children, feel very differently about guns. Lydia doesn't like them. Jen owns one.  Recently, they went out to a shooting range, to better understand each other's point of view.

Sisters in arms

After my story on Monday about how legendary Brooklyn pizzeria Totonno's is trying to rebuild and come back after super-storm Sandy, a lot of people said how charmed they were by the grand-daughter of the late Anthony "Totonno" Pero, Antoinette Balzano.  So here is an extended mix of the time I spent with Balzano, going around Coney Island, starting in front of Totonno's, going to the boardwalk, and returning back to the restaurant. We began by speaking about her grandfather.

Touring Coney Island with Antoinette Balzano of Totonno's Pizzeria

[<a href="https://soundcloud.com/theworld/sets/embedded-journalism-in-iraq">This is part of a panel discussion on embedded journalism in Iraq and Afghanistan</a>] 

This is part of a panel discussion on embedded journalism in Iraq and Afghanistan</a>] "(During the 2003 lead up to the Iraq invasion) we were going to bring all of the journalists that were going to go with us, and read them into the entire plan, weeks prior to the invasion.  And the reason this is done is, number one, they're going to be right beside us and deserve to know; and two, it was an extension of trust that says "We are going to let you in, and let you see everything that we're getting ready to do.  And we trust that you're not going to compromise the mission." - US Army Col. Richard "Ross" Coffman

Sebastian Junger, Bob Woodruff, Rita Leistner and Col. Ross Coffman talk with The World's Aaron Schachter on March 15, 2013

How reporters got to the war zone

Reporter Anders Kelto of PRI's The World talks about his radio and multimedia series, "School Year." Kelto is spending a year documenting the lives of students at a public high school in Cape Town, South Africa. The Centre of Science and Technology is a magnet school that serves families in the low-income township of Khayelitsha. &#13;
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Visit http://www.pri.org/school-year for more.

School Year

Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is. The World is heard on over 300 stations across North America.

Sisters in arms

The World

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