Subtitle: A Public Health Sourcebook on Guns
Author: Trudy Karlson And Stephen Hargarten
Subject: Public Health/Public Policy
Cloth ISBN 0-8135-2420-2
Paperback ISBN 0-8135-2421-0
Pages: 224 pp. 21 b & w illus, 23 figs.
There are few issues more explosive than guns. "Guns don't kill people, people kill people," is an often-heard response to calls for firearm control. But are there ways to make guns safer without placing further restrictions on gun owners? Can guns be engineered to reduce the number and severity of injuries?
This book is about guns and new solutions for addressing problems they create. Trudy Karlson and Stephen Hargarten, two experts in public health and injury control, show readers how guns are products, designed to injure and kill, and how changes in the design, technology, and marketing of firearms can lead to reductions in the number of injuries and fatalities.
Just as innovations in the design and technology of motor vehicles succeeded in creating safer cars, Karlson and Hargarten describe how responsible changes to gun products can reduce the number of serious injuries and fatalities. The injury control perspective illustrates how the characteristics of guns and ammunition are associated with their ability to cause injury and death. It also provides options for how guns can be re-engineered to ensure a greater degree of safety and protection. Reducing Firearm Injury and Death teaches basic facts about guns and gun injuries, and by reframing the problem of firearms as a public health issue, offers hope for saving lives.
Trudy Karlson is an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin Madison, Center for Health Systems Research and Analysis. One of the first people to earn a doctorate in injury control, Karlson has studied and developed strategies for preventing injuries from firearms and motor vehicles.
Stephen Hargarten holds degrees in medicine and public health, and is currently an associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
SOURCEBOOK SAMPLES
o There are nearly 40,000 gun-related deaths and more than 100,000 injuries annually in the U.S.
o The lifetime cost of all firearm injuries, fatal and nonfatal, that occurred in 1990 alone has been estimated at $20.4 billion.
o Guns are used in approximately 65% of all youth suicides. The risk of youth suicide is 2.5 times higher if there is a gun in the house.
o There are very few safety standards, or standards of any kind, for domestically manufactured firearms and manufacturers are under no obligation to make guns that have saftey features. By contrast, there are many safety standards for almost all other domestic and imported consumer products, including cars and most toys, including toy guns.
o In public health, education is used to inform people about risks they face when they choose to smoke, drink alcoholic beverages, eat fatty meals, and own guns. The better we are at describing high risk situations, high risk weapons, and high risk populations for deaths and injuries from firearms, the more specific our public health strategies can be.
o Public health education based on sound scientific information and marketed appropriately has changed eating, smoking, exercise, and drinking habits among some segements of the population. In doing so, it has also changed social behavior and provided impetus for public policy change.
KEY POINTS:
o Summarizes the problem of gun-related injuries and fatalities from a public health perspective.
o Provides basic facts about firearm technology, wound ballistics, ammunition, and the public health implications of gun design and technology.
o Informs public policy debate by recommending changes in gun products and the marketing of guns to reduce the likelihood of injury and death.
"This much-needed book sends a powerful message: we can prevent firearm deaths and injuries-especially if we learn our lessons about gun design and distribution."-Susan P. Baker, author of The Injury Fact Book
"The book is a clearly written primer on guns and ammunition and examines the public health policy implications of these consumer products and the injury and death that they cause. The epidemiology, mechanisms, costs, and means for prevention and reducing injury and death from guns are discussed. It is a valuable resource for those involved in protecting the health of the public and in creating a safer America."-Murray L. Katcher, M.D., Ph.D., Professor Pediatrics and of Family Medicine, University of Wisconsin Medical School
"An extremely informative guide that expands the focus on firearms and the criminal justice field to approaches based on the science of injury control. A must for public health and mental health professionals dealing with violence and suicide prevention."-Susan Scavo Gallagher, MPH, Education Development Center, Inc.
