‘Aftermath’ focuses on shooting survivors

A 14-year-old boy in Kentucky shot in a prayer circle at school.

A 17-year-old girl in Washington, D.C., shot while chatting outside with a group of friends.

A 23-year-old woman, working her first job in Seattle, shot by an intruder upset over tensions in the Middle East.

The circumstances and backgrounds vary, but they all share one defining characteristic: They survived.

“Aftermath,” a new podcast, exam- ines these survival stories to explore the long-term effects — physical and mental — of gun violence in the USA.

The project is the work of USA TODAY NETWORK journalists, in collaboration with the non-profit newsroom The Trace, and it debuts Tuesday.

“If I tell my story, or people that are survivors tell their story, it can be useful to the younger generation of people that’s upcoming in life,” said Michael Green, 19, who nearly lost his arm when he was shot six years ago while playing basketball down the street from his home in Detroit.

Every day on average in America, “Aftermath” The effects of gun violence in the USA

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roughly 96 people are shot and killed. Nearly 85,000 people survived gun injuries in 2015, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Each episode of “Aftermath” will ex- amine the struggles of shooting survivors.

“In any situation like this, there’s a person who’s injured, and then everyone around them also suffers in different ways,” said Layla Bush, 35, who was shot in the abdomen and shoulder during a mass shooting at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle in 2006.

The podcast doesn’t take a political stand, but some of the survivors will share their views on guns and proposed legislation aimed at preventing gun violence.

The eight episodes will be released every Tuesday through July 10.