Gun Crisis-Our Response to Gun Violence Philadelpia

#GunCrisis

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Wired: How will history judge our response to gun violence? Posted: 29 Jan 2013 09:44 AM PST Epidemiologists argue that violence is a disease that spreads from person to person, thriving in certain social conditions. They say exposure to violence is conceptually similar to cholera or tuberculosis, and that acts of violence are the germs. So, a recent article at Wired.com asks: Is It Time to Treat Violence Like a Contagious Disease? Children watch as police investigate a double shooting Sunday in the Kensington section of Philadelphia. Joseph Kaczmarek photographed the scene for the Gun Crisis Reporting Project. Wired: “A century from now, people might look back on violence prevention in the early 21st century as we now regard the primitive cholera prevention efforts in the early 19th century, when the disease was considered a product of filth and immorality rather than a microbe.” This isn’t just a phenomenon, according to epidemiologist Gary Slutkin of cureviolence.org, but a dynamic that can be rigorously quantified and understood. “The epidemiology of this is very clear when you look at the math,” said Slutkin. “The density maps of shootings in Kansas City or New York or Detroit look like cholera case maps from Bangladesh.” Locally, the public health response model is practiced by interrupters from Philadelphia Ceasefire. We took a walk through North Philadelphia with them during last summer’s National Night Out: Read the complete article at wired.com: Is It Time to Treat Violence Like a Contagious Disease? Wired adds that Slutkin helped organize a National Academies of Science workshop that in October published “The Contagion of Violence,” a 153-page report on the state of his field’s research.

American Anthropological Association says “U.S. government seems to be actively impeding” research on guns and public health Posted: 29 Jan 2013 07:31 AM PST Earlier this month, the American Anthropological Association released a statement on gun violence, on behalf of their members, which number more than 11,000. “Since it is necessary to understand a problem in order to solve it, there is an urgent need for research by social scientists, public health experts and others into the relationship between guns and public safety and into measures that might reduce the number of lives lost to gun-related violence every year.” Medics wheel a wounded man into the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania after he was shot earlier this month in Southwest Philadelphia. Tom Kelly IVphotographed the incident for the Gun Crisis Reporting Project. The letter addresses the history of public funding for research in the U.S. and the disruption of gun research at the Centers for Disease Control in recent decades, adding that ‘the U.S. government seems to be actively impeding it.” The letter calls on Congress and the Administration to stop obstructing knowledge about guns and public safety and make additional federal funds available to reduce the tragic loss of life in incidents involving guns. Read the AAA’s complete: Statement on Gun Violence