Chris Ware's Lockdown

Chris Ware's NYer Cover "Lockdown"

 Chris Ware's NYer Cover Story on his art "Lockdown" tells of Ware's inspiration from his CPS science-teaching wife and 17-year-old daughter.

After the shootings in Newtown, Clara, like many children across America, would come home from school and report that her class had locked down again for a safety drill. These exercises were ostensibly to rehearse students for the possibility of a real shooting. My wife—again, a teacher herself—and I would offer her an understanding look, but, frankly, I gave shamefully little thought to what they both regularly faced, how lockdowns worked, or how the protocols might solve the basic math problem of automatic weapons plus classrooms. These were unthinkable topics, grayed out in my mind. Some clarity was provided on January 6, 2021, when Clara and I watched the rioters scale the walls of the United States Capitol while senators and representatives huddled in fear. At the time, she shared a sentiment apparently proliferating among her peers on TikTok and Twitter: “I’m just really glad that the congressmen who voted to let guns multiply in America are now going through what my generation has for pretty much our whole lives.”