GROWING UP ON THE SOUTH and West Sides, Christian K. Lee got a firsthand look at responsible gun ownership: His father, a state police officer, kept a firearm at home. But that experience didn’t jibe with depictions on TV. “I never saw a positive image of African Americans around guns,” Lee says. “So I started to make those images that I knew existed.”
While stationed with the army in Texas, Lee offers a novel perspective on a charged subject. “I’m not trying to promote gun ownership,” he says. Instead, he wants to spotlight why Black people are arming themselves, namely systemic problems such as ineffective policing and communities made more dangerous from disinvestment. “When people look at gun violence, they just look at how to limit the gun. We need to get more to the root of the issue.”
