There are few issues more explosive than guns. "Guns don't kill
people, people kill people", is an often-heard response to calls
for firearm control. But are there ways to make guns safer without
placing further restrictions on gun owners? Can guns be engineered
to reduce the number and severity of injuries?
This book is about guns and new solutions for addressing
problems they create. Trudy Karlson and Stephen Hargarten, two
experts in public health and injury control, show readers how guns
are products, designed to injure and kill, and how changes in the
design, technology, and marketing of firearms can lead to
reductions in the number of injuries and fatalities.
Just as innovations in the design and technology of motor
vehicles succeeded in creating safer cars, Karlson and Hargarten
describe how responsible changes to gun products can reduce the
number of serious injuries and fatalities. The injury control
perspective illustrates how the characteristics of guns and
ammunition are associated with their ability to cause injury and
death. It also provides options for how guns can be re-engineered
to ensure a greater degree of safety and protection. Reducing
Firearm Injury and Death teaches basic facts about guns and gun
injuries, and by reframing the problem of firearms as a public
health issue, offers hope for saving lives.
-- There are nearly 40,000 gun-related deaths and more than 100,000
injuries annually in the U.S.
-- The lifetime cost of all firearm injuries, fatal and nonfatal,
that occurred in 1990 alone has been estimated at $20.4
billion.
-- Guns are used in approximately 65% of all youth suicides. The
risk of youth suicide is 2.5 times higher if there is a gunin the
house.
-- There are very few safety standards, or standards of any kind,
for domestically manufactured firearms and manufacturers are under
no obligation to make guns that have saftey features. By contrast,
there are many safety standards for almost all other domestic and
imported consumer products, including cars and most toys, including
toy guns.
-- In public health, education is used to inform people about risks
they face when they choose to smoke, drink alcoholic beverages, eat
fatty meals, and own guns. The better we are at describing high
risk situations, high risk weapons, and high risk populations for
deaths and injuries from firearms, the more specific our public
health strategies can be.
-- Public health education based on sound scientific information
and marketed appropriately has changed eating, smoking, exercise,
and drinking habits among some segements of the population. In
doing so, it has also changed social behavior and provided impetus
for public policy change.
-- Summarizes the problem of gun-related injuries and fatalities
from a public health perspective.
-- Provides basic facts about firearm technology, wound ballistics,
ammunition, and the public health implications of gun design and
technology.
-- Informs public policy debate by recommending changes in gun
products and the marketing of guns to reduce the likelihood of
injury and death.
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