Each year in the U.S. more than 30,000 people are killed by guns—with two-thirds of those deaths being suicide. And there are tens of thousands non-fatal injuries. Yet research into preventing firearm violence remains limited and under-funded. In a special collaborative episode with Review of Systems we’re taking an in-depth look at gun violence in America: why we know so little about the toll of firearm injuries and deaths, what researchers want to know, and how they are engaging gun owners and enthusiasts as key stakeholders in advocating for more research.
You'll hear perspectives on gun violence from the emergency room, with Megan Ranney, and from public health, with David Hemenway. Ranney is an associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Rhode Island Hospital/Alpert Medical School of Brown University and also chief research officer for the American Foundation for Firearm Injury Reduction in Medicine, a non-partisan philanthropy focused on filling the funding gap for high-quality, medically-focused, firearm injury research. Hemenway is a professor of health policy at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center. He has written widely on injury prevention, on topics including firearms, violence, suicide, child abuse, motor vehicle crashes, fires, falls, and fractures.
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Doctors affirm commitment to reducing gun violence (Harvard Chan School news)
New recommendations urge doctors to talk to patients about guns (Harvard Chan School news)
Uncommon Ground (Harvard Public Health magazine)