“If it don't kill you, it'll take away your life”: Survival strategies and isolation in a long-running gun conflict

Abstract

Gun violence in the United States often spurs long-running conflicts, but little is known about how individuals involved in these conflicts cope with the lingering threat of being shot. Drawing on an in-depth ethnographic case study of one young man's long-running gun conflict in New Orleans, as well as on interviews and fieldwork with other young men in his social network who dealt with similar conflicts, this study examines how individuals contend with direct, ongoing threats of violence targeted specifically at them. It finds that these threats can severely disrupt people's lives. When targeted individuals anticipate that their opponents will seek them out through known associations and whereabouts, people and places that were previously sources of security become newly imbued with apparent danger. Such insidious threats force targeted individuals to cut off formerly vital relationships and routines. These isolationist strategies help keep targeted individuals safe, but in the process they snuff out opportunity, stifle otherwise healthy relationships, and give rise to protracted stalemates. The findings show how the lived experience of a long-running gun conflict can be characterized primarily by caution and defensiveness, not by going on the attack. They also reveal previously hidden social consequences of these defensive strategies.