... plus other United States of Ammunition photographs from Colorado
by Maureen Cain.
While I was in Denver for the holiday weekend, I also went to Colorado Springs to take a photograph at Club Q where, just a week earlier, a shooter killed five people and injured 25 others. In front of the boarded-up LGBTQ club, I met a young Mennonite pastor who told me that earlier in the week mourners had been harassed by far-right Christians who were "offering ministry that was not at all helpful." He and representatives from other inclusive congregations were taking one hour shifts at the memorial, welcoming the community and providing the kind of ministry that is helpful.
I started United States of Ammunition in 2019 when a box of 1,000 rounds of ammunition was mistakenly delivered to my address and since then I've taken 100+ photographs of sites of gun violence, including quite a few sites in Colorado. Some of America's most well-known shootings have happened there, like the school shooting at Columbine High School in 1999 and the movie theater shooting in Aurora in 2012, both pictured below.
Colorado is also home to Lauren Boebert, gun rights activist and member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Up until July 2022, Representative Boebert owned and operated a gun-themed restaurant in Rifle, CO called Shooter's Grill. I visited the restaurant this summer to take a picture and to see the servers who famously carried handguns on their hips. But the day we were there, the only server on duty was 16 years old and she was not allowed to carry a gun.
Maureen Cain
Artist & Speaker
Gun violence data from Gun Violence Archive.
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