GVPanorama: Gun Violence Must Stop. Here's What We Can Do to Prevent More Deaths
Through a public health approach, we can save lives
The fight for gun violence prevention may only get more disheartening in the next couple of years, as the incoming administration has expressed no desire to address the problem — and in fact wants to sack the Office of Gun Violence Prevention and roll back the Biden administration’s Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Not to mention the new administration has been heavily supported by the gun lobby.
That does not mean there aren’t workable solutions that can be expanded on from the ground up while advocating for stronger national legislation. And this recent article from the Prevention Institute lays out a number of them — mostly focused around presenting the problem as a public health problem and as a part of overall community violence reduction. These actions can be a practical way to bring the pro-gun people who have taken control of many of the levers of power in this election into the common sense fold.
We know that these deaths are a predictable outcome of our country’s lack of political will to make a change and an underinvestment in prevention approaches that work. Through a public health approach that focuses on drawing from evidence and addressing the factors that increase or decrease the risk of gun violence, particularly in communities that are disproportionately impacted, we can save lives.
Check out the full article here.
Prevention Institute is a national nonprofit that, since 1997, has partnered with communities, local government entities, foundations, multiple sectors, and public health agencies to bring cutting-edge research, practice, strategy, and analysis to the pressing health and safety concerns of the day.
Image by Fibonacci Blue via flickr.