Washington, D.C.

Children Under Fire takes place in two general locales: Washington, D.C. and Townville, South Carolina. The children in these places both suffer from traumatic stress even though D.C. and Townville are radically different places. Washington, D.C. is urban and poverty-stricken especially in the Southeast where Tyshaun McPhatter resides. Gun violence over "petty feuds" is an immediate challenge in Southeast D.C.

Townville, South Carolina

Townville, South Carolina is "a quiet, four-thousand-person swath of countryside in the northwest corner of South Carolina known as the Upstate" (3). Ava Olsen lives in Townville and attended Townville Elementary School before the playground shooting. Gun ownership is very much a fact of life in this town.

The Iron Pipeline

The Iron Pipeline is a stretch of interstate highway that gun traffickers use to move guns from areas with lax gun laws to areas with stricter ones. One...