Every Public Health Crisis Has Been Addressed By Turning To The Research — Except Gun Violence

TRANSCRIPT:
June 15, 2016 GAREN WINTEMUTE: We are not a country that ordinarily turns its back on science and innovation. Take motor vehicles. 50 years ago, now, we faced an epidemic. We got scientists involved, we gave them research -- funding for research. We said give us answers. Policymakers stood ready to put those answers into policies and programs and 50 years later, the motor vehicle death rate has been decreased by 60%, even though we drive much more. We’ve done it for heart disease, we’ve done it for cancer. We’re in the early stages of doing this with opioids and heroin. There’s this one exception. There’s firearm violence where we consistently, consciously, deliberately have turned our back on the tools that we ordinarily use to address tough problems like these. More than 30,000 people a year die from firearm violence. More than from motor vehicle crashes. 29:32 rates haven’t changed in a decade. We are making no progress.
Interview:
https://youtu.be/ZOI0MFktMXk