There are people who are dedicated to understanding the problem in order to find solutions.
PORTLAND, Orebic - Gun violence in Oregon and across the country is back in the spotlight after a series of recent mass shootings. But there are people who are dedicated to understanding the problem in order to find solutions.
At Oregon University of Health and Science (OHSU) and Portland VA Medical Center, researchers are studying gun violence through the lens of public health. With the data they are collecting, Dr. Kathleen Carlson and her team hope to reduce the incidence of gun violence across Oregon.
“We look at all firearms injuries treated in emergency departments and emergency care centers across the state, and we also look at firearms-related deaths across the state and evaluate them in terms of patterns over time,” said Carlson, a professor of public health. at OHSU and the Portland State University School of Public Health.
She and her team received funding to investigate gun violence from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) a few years ago, after Congress appropriated $ 25 million for it.
“It was a new source of CDC funding that went to several countries across the country, including ours,” Carlson said.
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Although she said that part of the money is a drop in the bucket compared to funding other research topics, it is still a big deal, especially because funding for research on gun violence has been limited for many years.
“NRA [National Rifle Association] “He saw this as a way to publicly fund research that supports gun control,” Carlson said.
So, she said that the NRA cooperated with the Congress on changing the budget appropriation for the CDC.
“If the funds go to research on gun violence, the CDC will lose the entire budget for the prevention of injuries and violence. So, this has completely stopped weapons research, “Carlson said.
But now she said things are starting to change as more research funding becomes available. Carlson said she began investigating gun violence around 2015 after a shooting at Sandy Hook School that killed 26 people. Twenty victims were children. Carlson, who was a parent at the time, also lost a family member to suicide with a firearm.
“I thought I had all the training for this. I have personal experience. “I have to use these tolls to resolve this issue,” she said.
Carlson said that at the national level, injuries from firearms have replaced deaths in motor vehicle collisions. Oregon has an average of over 500 gun deaths each year. About 80 percent of them are suicidal, and she said that there are a lot of unintentional injuries. According to Carlson, there were some significant findings in the VA data studied by her team.
“We have seen that any treatment of gunshot wounds that was not fatal is strongly associated with subsequent firearms death, most often suicide,” Carlson said.
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She said her team is considering ways to intervene at the hospital level when people come, but is also considering possible changes at the community level to reduce gun violence. One idea that has become popular is the use of eco-design.
“At the national level, what we have seen is strongly assessed is the use of greening initiatives, and that is, you know, taking empty plots, greening those empty plots, reducing urban stains or empty buildings,” Carlson said.
She said the idea of environmental design could be seen as beautifying settlements or reinvesting in them after decades of disinvestment, which she said affects the rate of violence.
“But it also, very practically, reduces the areas where people can hide or conceal weapons.
After so much gun violence in our communities, Carlson said gun violence is not inevitable. We can do something about it and it starts with understanding the problem.
“It is not hopeless. “There are countless ways to assess and tackle this,” she said.
Carlson likened it to advances in car and road safety over the years. It can be the same with weapons and violence, balancing security and freedom.
“Weapon injuries and gun violence are not inevitable. There are solutions, there are patterns that we can assess, and that means there are solutions and ways to prevent that. ”
Carlson said that we as a society must get rid of the idea that the issue is binary, the right to arms in relation to arms control. She said that there is a lot of space in the middle to find a sustainable solution.
While her work will not mean stopping gun violence immediately, she hopes research led by her and her team will help combat gun violence in the future.