Gun violence must be treated as a public-health issue — such as alcohol, smoking and traffic — say people concerned about gun-related death rates from mass shootings and random shots nationwide.Well, I guess that's another nail in the coffin of "more guns equals less crime." Gun related deaths have INCREASED between 2009 and 2010.
"Guns are where tobacco was in the 1950s," said Garen Wintemute, director of the Violence Prevention Research Program, who practices emergency medicine at the University of California at Davis School of Medicine. "There's a little bit of science and a great deal of reluctance to do anything with the results."
In the mid-1980s, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began to look at gun-related deaths and injuries as a public-health problem and to finance scientific studies into the root causes of gun violence.
But in 1996, the National Rifle Association successfully lobbied to block funding for such research. Little publicly funded research has been conducted since. As a result, there are few strategies for reducing firearm-related deaths, but the toll is moving upward, according to the latest data from the CDC.
In 2010, there were 31,672 deaths in the United States from firearm-related injuries, up from 31,347 in 2009.
It's amazing how the cherry-picking, mendacious gun-rights advocates will get on something and keep pushing it regardless of it's true worth. Most of them don't even think, they just repeat anything that supports their mandate.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
