Using public health to address gun violence (Gettysburg Times op-ed)
On Friday, Jan. 6, a 6-year-old student at Richneck Elementary School, Newport News, Va., shot his teacher in front of his fellow classmates and put her in a hospital with life-threatening wounds. Perhaps this shocking event is the best evidence of how competently we have failed to deal with gun violence. Anger, frustration, revenge, and lax parental control are issues law enforcement cannot effectively address. Yet, daily, gun violence snuffs out Americans’ lives and incapacitates so many more. We reach in vain for more stringent laws to solve the problem while we suffer the ignominy of the world. Why is it that this most advanced of advanced countries tolerates unrelenting, persistent murders in our homes and schools daily?
I assert that we have been looking for the wrong tools. Gun violence is a pathological condition in American society that requires the tools of the public health professional. It reminds me of Einstein’s famous meme: the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If we rely upon law enforcement exclusively, we will continue to suffer tragedy upon tragedy until a 6-year-old’s teacher pays the ultimate price.
Perhaps another definition of insanity is ignoring what is before our faces: the tools of public health. Like many other states, Pennsylvania severely restricted public health funding over the years, and so few if any of the state’s universities have had funding to research gun violence. The only exception is Allegheny County, surrounding Pittsburg. Happily, Gov. Shapiro’s Secretary Designate for Health Debra Bogen, MD, is the former director of health for Allegheny County, so maybe this will begin to change.
Another instructive aspect of the Richneck episode, not to ignore the heroism of the teacher who secured the safety of all her students before she sought help for herself, is the reverse side of the gun violence picture, where children are the victims. Let us begin with some facts.
2,700 children under the age of 18 were treated for firearm injuries from April 2020 to December 2021, which is 50% more than for the corresponding period 2018 to 2019.
Homes are far more dangerous than schools for young victims of gun violence. In the five years ending in 2022, at least 866 students (ages 0-17) were shot in domestic violence incidents, and 268 were shot at school.
2022 broke the record for the most school shootings in over four decades and marked one of the most violent years for youth ages 12-17. At the end of 2022, there were 300 shooting incidents on school grounds compared to 250 in 2021 and 114 in 2020. These numbers indicate that there has been a shooting at a school just about every day in 2023. Indeed, in 2023, 421 children (ages 0-17) have been killed.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, firearms have become the No. 1 cause of death for children in the United States. Yet, while schools anticipate more gun violence, one must ask if they are prepared for the uptick in the magnitude of the violence and use of weapons like AR-15s.
What kind of a society is willing to trade the right to own a gun for a child’s life? What kind of society continues to allow the slaughter of its children while refusing to take any and every action to protect them? Many believe the answer is building a fortress around our schools and resorting to a quick-fix security theater of more security hardware, products, and technology, as was done recently in an Alabama school.
School shootings reflect what is happening in the larger society. Data clearly indicates that shooting incidents occur when a dispute escalates. Data indicates that 761 shootings between 1970 to now resulted from physical or verbal altercations. In 2022, 80 out of 300 were attributed to that cause.
As long as we adhere to the idea that gun violence can be solved through better enforcement of gun laws and more guns in the hands of citizens, our children will continue to die because, over the years, these strategies have failed. Clearly, the problem is worsening. Doctors take care of victims after the fact. Most of the activities of law enforcement take place after the fact. The goal of public health is neither to determine fault nor to punish perpetrators. Instead, the goal of public health is to focus on prevention, the elimination of the problem before another death occurs.
What can be done? The list of effective strategies is too long for inclusion here, but here are some important highlights.
Recognize gun violence as a critical and preventable public health problem and support community safety plans that include prevention and intervention.
Reduce easy access to dangerous weapons, engage gun owners and dealers in creating a culture of gun safety, insist on mandatory training and licensing for owners, and require safe and secure gun storage.
Support gun violence research, so essential for public health to be effective.
Support healthy norms about masculinity.
Understand the linkage between anger and gun violence.
Advance gun safety and self-defense technology like ‘smart guns’ that require fingerprint identification.
Hold the gun industry accountable, especially as it relates to the marketing and sales of firearms.
Outlaw AR-15s and relegate their use to the battlefields of war.
Create more community-wide violence prevention programs, which promise the greatest benefit by reducing violence before it occurs, particularly for high-risk communities.
These measures are critically important but may not withstand the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court. In a 6-3 decision last June, the Supreme Court dramatically shifted the standard for firearm restrictions. Writing for the majority in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, Justice Clarence Thomas found that gun laws should be judged not by the longstanding practice of balancing gun rights against the public interest but according to the Second Amendment’s text and the “historical tradition” of gun regulation.
We cannot shoot our way to safety. Educate, encourage, and use law enforcement as a last resort.
Tony McNevin is a member of the DFA’s Education Task Force and manages his consulting firm, Educational Consultants LLC, continuing his extensive career in association management. Tony and his wife, Lyn, have been residents of Adams County since 2006. The opinions are his own.