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1、Gun violence in AmericaHemenway outlines how firearms violence mirrors public health crisisBy Katie KochHarvard Staff WriterMonday, December 17, 2012File photo by Rose Lincoln/Harvard Staff PhotographerThe mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School should galvanize Americans to view gun violence
2、as a public health crisis, says David Hemenway, Harvard professor of health policy and author of “Private Guns, Public Health.”In the wake of Fridays rampage in Newtown, Conn., during which 20 children and six staff members were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Americans are searching for ans
3、wers. It was the second-deadliest such shooting case in U.S. history.Enter David Hemenway, professor of health policy at Harvard School of Public Health and author of “Private Guns, Public Health,” a 2006 book that summarized research on gun violence in America and outlined public-health-minded appr
4、oaches to reducing firearms deaths. “This is not how I wanted to be in demand,” Hemenway lamented Monday afternoon as the debate about gun violence was back in the spotlight. He spoke with Gazette staff writer Katie Koch about what he sees as an epidemic of firearms violence.GAZETTE: You published “
5、Private Guns, Public Health” six years ago. What were some of the most interesting or unexpected things you found at the time?HEMENWAY: I think the most shocking thing is to compare ourselves to the other developed countries. People think we have a violence problem in the United States, but we reall
6、y dont. Were an average country in terms of all the violence measures you can think of, in terms of crime. But where were very different is guns. We have lots more guns than anybody else, particularly handguns. A lot of countries have hunting rifles, but we have these handguns, and then we have thes
7、e assault weapons. Secondly, we have by far the most permissive gun control laws, the weakest gun policies of any country. Its not even close. Not surprisingly, we have more gun crime and more gun homicide.We compared the United States to the other First World countries. We looked at both genders an
8、d all ages, but here are the statistics for 5- to 14-year-olds. A child in the United States compared to a child in Finland or France or New Zealand is not 20 percent more likely to be killed in a gun homicide, or 50 percent more likely, or twice as likely, or five times as likely. Its 13 times high
9、er.Our gun suicide rate for these children is eight times higher. Our non-gun suicide rate is average. For unintentional gun deaths, we have 10 times the likelihood of death compared with other developed countries. These children are at risk. When you do surveys across states or cities or regions, y
10、ou find that where there are more guns and more permissive gun laws, people are dying.We can do so much better. Other countries have done so much better.GAZETTE: Youve done some research on the psychic costs of high rates of gun ownership in a community. What does it show?HEMENWAY: When we do our st
11、udies of inner-city kids, we find that a lot of them, maybe 5 percent of them, have carried guns, which is way too many. But when we ask them, “What kind of world would you want to live in: one where its easy, difficult, or impossible to get guns?” the huge majority want it to be impossible. Even th
12、e kids who have carried illegally want it to be impossible. But the reason theyre carrying is that other kids are carrying.Its not only that you become fearful if there are so many guns. Once theres a gun shooting, its so much more horrific to the community than if theres, say, a poisoning death, be
13、cause a shooting changes everything. It means youre afraid to go out into the community. It means youre afraid to have your kids play outside. You have all these devastating effects on the community. Strangers dont want to come into your community. People dont want to work in your community. You can
14、 just destroy an entire community with some gun violence.GAZETTE: Where do these horrific mass shootings come in?HEMENWAY: We have more of these than other countries, too. The interesting thing is, it seems like most of these are suicides. These are often people who arent criminals in the normal sen
15、se. They look more like suicidal people, and thats what they are. In every one of these mass shootings, the person has either committed suicide or suicide-by-cop, or was immediately arrested and incarcerated forever. So the notion that you might, by arming other people, deter anything is crazy. For
16、these people, this is their last basic act on earth.GAZETTE: Why should we consider gun safety and gun control public health issues?HEMENWAY: Its a criminal justice issue, but its also much broader than that. It also has to do with public safety and health. Criminal justice basically focuses on the individual criminal and police. We say, what about social norms? Can doctors do anything? We have all this data from the medical c
