U.S. Gun Deaths

"U.S. Gun Deaths" opens with a thin orange line that arcs over an unnerving black background. A label hints that the path is the length of a person's life. His name is Alexander Lipkins. Suddenly, when the animation reaches 29 years, it halts and a dot drops to the baseline. From that moment on, the line turns grey, representing the years Lipkins could have lived, were his journey not interrupted by the roar of gunfire. An instant later, the left side of the X-axis turns into a punctured hose, which sputters hundreds, thousands of lines. Invariably, orange turns to grey in all of them.