Shooting Straight: Calling Guns a Public Health Crisis Won’t Reduce Violence, But it Isn’t Meant To
Now that the Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, has declared “gun violence” a public health crisis, life has immediately improved. The heavens have opened, the angels are singing, and darned if a cute little cherub didn’t come flying down to anoint us all — at least in this part of Texas — with glitter and […]
Murthy Missed One Thing in His ‘Public Health Crisis’ Declaration…the Data
In the 1980s, when Surgeon General C. Everett Koop embarked on an effort to make America a “smoke‐free society by the year 2000,” it marked the beginning of an expanded role for the Surgeon General. Since Koop, Surgeons General have seen themselves as “the nation’s doctor.” They have influenced Congress to pass legislation on ever‐expanding […]
Anti-Gun Physicians Playing a Game of Gun Control Telephone
Fake mass-shooting data has infected the medical community for a long time, and the infection is spreading. As soon as one anti-gun doctor publishes flawed research, another like-minded physician will piggyback on the previous study. It’s almost like the children’s telephone game, because the final message is always indecipherable. Too many health care professionals see […]
Hemenway: When it Comes to Guns, the World Goes One Way and America Goes the Other
Gun laws have become much weaker in the United States. In most other countries, when there’s a big mass shooting, it’s a time to examine your gun laws and make them stronger. Australia did that and has been incredibly successful in terms of reducing gun violence. New Zealand did that more recently. The United Kingdom did […]
Time to Gear Up to Tell Doctors – Again – Their Patients’ Gun Ownership is None of Their Business
Chethan Sathya, a pediatric trauma surgeon and the director of Northwell Health’s Center for Gun Violence Prevention, pointed out that those topics used to be contentious for physicians to talk about. To treat guns as a public-health issue, “we can’t be uncomfortable having conversations,” he told me. But doctors have more power in this situation […]