On May 24th, an eighteen-year-old gunman shot and killed nineteen children and two adults at Robb Elementary School, in Uvalde, Texas. The horrific spree came just ten days after thirteen people were shot—ten of them killed—at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, by a self-professed white supremacist. In the past two months, Americans have also been confronted with mass shootings at a church, a flea market, and inside a subway car during the morning rush-hour. The magazine’s cover for the June 6, 2022, issue, is by the artist Eric Drooker, who echoes the weary rage of many when he says, “I hastily scrawled this image, wondering: Why are Americans so infatuated with guns in the first place? What are they so afraid of?”

For more coverage, read Rachel Monroe’s dispatch from Uvalde, where she spoke to locals as they grappled with the shooting’s aftermath:

The civic center was crowded with families, and quieter than you would’ve guessed, [Jesus] Rodriguez said. Every time a new bus of kids showed up, everyone held their breath until they saw who was on it.

Read Jessica Winter on the hypocrisy of gun-rights advocates:

If America were not afraid to know itself, we could more readily accept that gun-rights advocates are enthralled with violent sorrow. This is the America they envisaged. It is what they worked so hard for. Their thoughts and prayers have been answered.

Read John Cassidy on how other countries have successfully enacted gun-control reforms, turning mass shootings into “rare, aberrational events rather than the everyday occurrences they are in this country.”

See below for other covers addressing gun violence:

Find Eric Drooker’s covers, cartoons, and more at the Condé Nast Store.