David Hemenway, professor of health policy at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center (HICRC), has long argued for a public health approach to reducing gun violence. This, he says, requires employing a wide variety of methods to reduce the problem.
An example of this approach in action is the hackathon held at Massachusetts General Hospital earlier this month, which focused on developing innovative solutions for reducing gun violence. The competition’s winning team developed an app to connect people in need of help—such as those in an abusive relationship—with social services and mentors.
Speaking to WGBH for an April 24, 2018 story about the event, Hemenway compared reducing gun violence to the successful effort to reduce motor vehicle fatalities. Rather than relying on drivers to change their behavior, policy makers, car manufacturers, and others implemented changes to make driving safer, such as improving street lighting and making steering columns collapsible.
Hemenway’s colleague at HICRC Cathy Barber said in the story that reducing gun violence will also require incremental approaches. “There isn’t one vaccine that’s gonna work,” she said.
Read WGBH article: Could a Public Health Approach Help Prevent Gun Violence?