Private Guns, Public Health, New Ed.

by David Hemenway

Overview

On an average day in the United States, guns are used to kill over ninety people and wound about three hundred more; yet such facts are accepted as a natural consequence of supposedly high American rates of violence. Private Guns, Public Health reveals the advantages of treating gun violence as a consumer safety and public health problem—an approach that emphasizes prevention over punishment and that has successfully reduced the rates of injury and death from infectious disease, car accidents, and tobacco consumption.

Hemenway fair-mindedly and authoritatively outlines a policy course that would significantly reduce gun-related injury and death, pointing us toward a solution.



 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780472037018
Publisher:	University of Michigan Press
Publication date:	08/07/2017
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	394
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

David Hemenway is Professor of Health Policy at the Harvard School of Public Health, and Director of Harvard’s Injury Control Research Center. In 2012 he was recognized by the Centers for Disease Control as one of the twenty “most influential injury and violence professionals over the past twenty years.”


 

Table of Contents

Preface to the New Edition xi

Preface to the 2004 Edition xxv

Chapter 1 Guns and American Society 1

The Scope of the Gun Problem 1

The Facts about Gun Ownership 5

Chapter 2 The Public Health Approach 8

What Public Health Means in Practice 8

The Scientific Basis of Injury Control 10

The Wrong Medicine: "Good Guys" and "Bad Guys" 20

Chapter 3 Gun-Related Injury and Death 27

Gun Accidents 27

Suicides 35

Homicides 45

Other Gun-Related Crimes 54

Chapter 4 Self-Defense Use of Guns 64

The Myth and Reality of Deterrence 64

How Common Is Self-Defense Gun Use? 66

Is More Better? 69

How Effective Is Self-Defense Gun Use? 75

Chapter 5 Location 79

Guns in the Home 79

Guns in Schools 88

Guns in Public 96

Chapter 6 Demography 107

Young Children 107

Adolescents and Young Adults 112

Women 120

African Americans 124

Chapter 7 Supply 130

Manufacturers 130

Licensed Dealers 141

The Unregulated Market 146

Chapter 8 Policy Background 152

The Second Amendment 152

Public Opinion 161

Evaluating Regulation 165

Chapter 9 Policy Lessons 177

The Wrong Arguments 178

Lessons from Other Products 188

Lessons from Other Countries 197

International Effects of Our Permissive Policies 202

Chapter 10 Policy Actions 209

A Brief History of Firearms Law 209

Reasonable Policies 212

Public Health Surveillance 218

Conclusion 224

Afterword (2006) 227

Appendix A Methodology 261

Appendix B Famous Civilians Shot in the United States 287

Bibliography 289

Name Index 341

Place Index 351

General Index 355

Editorial Reviews

Hemenway has written an accessible and compelling research brief that places the burden of proof squarely on the shoulders of those opposed to the policy reforms he discusses. . . . One does not have to endorse his interpretation of the current research literature to agree that improved surveillance of unintentional firearm injuries, suicides, and homicides would help determine whether the lives saved and injuries averted are worth the monetary and symbolic costs of stricter gun control.”
—Journal of the American Medical Association


“. . . a detailed, sober account of the effect of guns on society. . . . [Hemenway] compares the public health problems created by firearms with those of tobacco and alcohol . . . [and] calls for a public health approach to firearms that ‘is not about banning guns but is about creating policies that will prevent violence and injuries.’”
—John Langone, New York Times


“. . . Hemenway makes a compelling case that using a public health approach to gun-related injuries in this country is the best way to reduce death and injuries. . . . Private Guns, Public Health is essential reading for those interested in gun injury and death in the United States. Public health officials, legislators, proponents of injury prevention, and health care professionals could all benefit from reading this book. The author has integrated what is known about firearm injuries into one easy-to-read source.”
—Journal of Emergency Nursing 
 

From the Publisher