Papachristos and Meares on Gun Violence as a Public Health Issue

It has been just over a year since Sandy Hook and over the course of this past year more than 11,161 people have been killed with a firearm in the U.S.  Another estimated 69,000 were shot and survived and 20,000 committed suicide with a firearm.

When professors Andrew Papachristos and Tracey Meares taught a class of Yale college students on the vexing problem of gun violence in this country, they looked at  a broad range of topics related to guns. They studied the mechanics of firearms, the Second Amendment, legal and illegal gun markets, gun crime, gun injuries and suicides. They poured over survey data, police records and public health information. They even interviewed gun owners. At the end of the semester, they came up with couple of policy initiatives designed to save lives and prevent injuries.

Read the full op-ed  “Firearm Violence: A Public Health Issue,” by ISPS Affiliated Faculty Andrew Papachristos (Sociology) and Tracey Meares (Yale Law School). Published in the Hartford Courant on December 20, 2013.