Firearm Violence: Research and Action
Part of a Series on Gun Violence Co-Sponsored by Social Science Matrix
Firearm injury is one of the leading causes of death in the United States, and disproportionately affects black men between the ages of 15 and 34. Including homicides and suicides, the United States experiences, on average, the equivalent of one death by firearm every 16 minutes.
Join us for a discussion with our featured speakers—Magdalena Cerda, DrPH, MPH, Vice Chancellor’s Chair in Violence Prevention and Associate Professor, University of California, Davis; and Garen J. Wintemute, MD, MPH, Director of the Violence Prevention Research Program and Professor, University of California, Davis—as they review current research on firearm violence as a health problem, highlight successful interventions, and suggest possibilities for the future.
This talk is part of the 2016-2017 UC Berkeley School of Public Health Dean’s Speaker Series and the Human Rights Center's Gun Violence in America event series, a UC Berkeley event series that engages the nation’s foremost experts on gun violence in reframing public debate, laying the groundwork for new research and advocacy, and ultimately lessening gun violence in the United States.
RSVP by September 20 online, or or by emailing Niki Shapiro at nikishapiro@berkeley.edu.
The Problem
Gun violence—whether in the form of homicides, suicides, or accidents—kills approximately 30,000 Americans every year and injures 70,000 more. At 31.2 deaths per million people, Americans are almost as likely to die at the end of a gun as they are in a car accident. Mass shootings have also increased in frequency, with shootings involving four or more victims occurring almost daily.
Despite these statistics, Congress has effectively banned the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) from researching gun violence, and gun regulation remains lax. Even high-profile mass shootings have failed to spark Congressional action. While the majority of Americans in a recent Pew poll express support for greater gun regulation, political camps are largely entrenched and the public debate is more polarized than ever. Even with the rise of advocacy groups like Everytown for Gun Safety, it remains difficult to spark an effective movement for policy change.
These challenges, however, may not be a barrier to discovering solutions to gun violence in the United States. Our project will be centered around learning from UC Berkeley’s researchers and some of the nation’s foremost experts on gun violence—across disciplines—to help reframe and elevate public discourse, lay the groundwork for new research and advocacy, and ultimately lessen gun violence.
Events and Action
The Gun Violence Series will use a multi-disciplinary lens—public health, journalism, social psychology, law, history, computer science, political science, and public policy—to articulate what more can be done to prevent future gun violence in the United States. Through live-streaming, op-eds, blogging, and social media, the event and film series will reach a national audience and feed into a larger dialogue about gun violence research gaps and the movement for gun safety.
A series of high-profile events to dispel misunderstandings and misinformation about gun violence, raise critical issues, review and compare reputable research, and spur community members and students to action. The event series will be interdisciplinary, analyzing the issue from a variety of perspectives and interrogating different solutions. Multiple Berkeley departments will sponsor events, pairing campus experts with national experts who may be policymakers, academics, legislators, advocates, or survivors.
Sponsors
Sponsors include the Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley School of Law, Human Rights Program, School of Public Health, Graduate School of Journalism, Henderson Center for Social Justice, and Social Science Matrix. The series is financially supported by the Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Foundation and the Townsend Center for Humanities.
Activities
Public events: This six-part event series will provide a forum for safe discussion, non-partisan research, and a variety of viewpoints. Through high-quality events across campus departments, attendees (including undergraduate and graduate students who are future leaders) will be exposed to facts, analysis, and potential solutions.
Media: An event series blog will illuminate key stories and takeaways from the events and profile speakers through Q&A. Additionally, op-eds or news analysis related to the events and suggesting next steps for mitigating gun violence will be placed in national media outlets. Visit hrc.hrclawblogs.org.
Multi-media and Resources: The event series web page will provide access to edited videos from each event, extending the reach and life of the project. The page will also host links to additional research, resources, organizations, and an extensive list of experts from across the policy landscape.
Research and Advocacy Convening: The series will culminate in a strategy session of researchers and advocates (those who directly participated in the event series and other invited guests) with a goal of discussing existing research and research gaps, solidifying a network of researchers and advocates working on understanding and mitigating gun violence, and taking steps toward advancing a social movement for gun safety.
