In the final part of a six-part series for MSNBC.com, we ask why, instead of standing up for victims of gun violence in places like Sandy Hook, U.S. Representative Robin Kelly chooses to sit in silent protest. We also meet parents who have lost children to see how they cope with their loss by channeling […]

ER doctors at Advocate Christ Medical Center try to save the lives of gunshot victims while family and neighbors mourn after a bullet pierces a house, striking 11-year-old Shamiya Adams dead. Produced, written, filmed and edited by Craig Duff with reporter Stephen Franklin. Narrated by Trymaine Lee.

Basketball coach Shawn Harrington struggles to recover from a gunshot wound that left him paralyzed while a high school teacher offers a message of forgiveness to those who forever changed his life. Produced, written, shot and edited by Craig Duff with reporter Stephen Franklin. Narrated by Trymaine Lee.

Youths from the Brighton Park neighborhood say gangs are their family and they would never give them up, while teens in the Back of the Yards neighborhood say it’s better to have an illegal gun and risk going to jail than be shot dead. Produced, written, shot and edited by Craig Duff with reporter Stephen Franklin. Narrated by

Interrupters from Cure Violence, formerly known as Cease Fire, try to cool tempers and immediately defuse the conflicts that perpetuate the cycle of violence. And local law enforcement reaches out directly to parolees to give them alternatives to violence. Produced, written, shot and edited by Craig Duff with reporter Stephen Franklin.

In part 5 of the MSNBC.com original series on Chicago and life in a city under siege from guns, we meet a group of men called Brothers on the Block — and their counterpart group Sisters on the Street — who fanned out to the city’s most crime-ridden blocks to make a show of force against violence.