A medical professor advocated for community-based solutions and policies to address gun violence as a public health crisis during a virtual lecture Feb. 26.
Cassandra Crifasi, an associate professor of health policy and management at Johns Hopkins University, highlighted the intersection of gun violence solutions and public health policy research during the event. Georgetown University’s health and the public interest program (HAPI), a master’s program that prepares students to help solve global health care problems, hosted Crifasi as part of its weekly seminar series platforming public health leaders.
Crifasi, the co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions (CGVS), which conducts non-partisan research to address gun violence as a public health emergency, said loose gun laws are responsible for high rates of gun deaths in both homicide and household accidents.
“It’s actually Mississippi, Louisiana, New Mexico, Alabama — places where they have fairly lax firearm policies — where we’re seeing the highest rates,” Crifasi said during the event.
“There’s this perception that if we could reduce violence in these particular urban areas of the country — that may be perceived as Democratic or sanctuary or whatever term you want — that we would magically eliminate the vast proportion of our firearm violence in this country, and that’s simply not the case,” Crifasi said. “The places that are most gun friendly, that pride themselves on gun rights, are the places where we have the most burden of gun deaths in the U.S.”
Gun violence is the leading cause of death for individuals under 18 in the United States, but gun safety laws often face legal challenges based on the Second Amendment, which protects the right to bear arms.
Crifasi said firearm violence, specifically in terms of homicide rates, is often dramatically higher in marginalized communities facing systemic disadvantage.
“Across every age bracket, Black Americans experience much higher rates of firearm homicide than white Americans, but particularly for our youngest people,” Crifasi said. “And thinking about some of the structural issues that we have and some of the policy choices we’ve made that tend to concentrate in both disadvantaged and disinvested minority communities, it can contribute to some of these high rates of violence.”
Crifasi added that measures including legally mandated background checks would help prevent firearm deaths and make it safer to carry guns in public.
“If someone, for example, wants to carry a concealed firearm in public, our research has found that when you have standards, and you have sufficient training and background check requirements, you actually see fewer harms than if you make it really easy for people to carry in public,” Crifasi said.
Jennifer Jantzen, the program coordinator for the HAPI program, said the seminars are important because they connect students to expert health care professionals like Crifasi.
“The series is a great way to see what types of groundbreaking health careers are out there and network with professionals,” Jantzen wrote to The Hoya. “I hope these sessions inspire students to make change in their own communities to improve health outcomes for everyone.”
Crifasi said CGVS focuses on local solutions by engaging directly with communities to avoid villainizing firearms or over relying on government intervention.
“We’ve developed a public health and safety partnership called the Violence Reduction Councils that brings data together with a variety of partners, including community members, to understand the data, see what’s happening in their community and co-create solutions,” Crifasi said. “We make recommendations on what can be done that are consistent with what the community wants to see happening, rather than relying solely on policing or other criminal justice interventions.”
Adam Myers, co-director of the HAPI program, said he was excited for students to engage with solutions to gun violence outside of the heavily politicized context of the Second Amendment.
“I hope our students learned that the debate about guns and gun violence in our nation should go beyond the politically charged debate around the Second Amendment,” Myers wrote to The Hoya. “There are many ways to reduce the rate of injury and death caused by gun violence.”
Crifasi said safer gun policies enjoy widespread public support, but advocates must persuade the government to enact change.
“We have pretty broad support,” Crifasi said. “Our challenge is activating people to do something with this knowledge and then getting our policymakers to do something that is evidence-based, to reduce gun violence — not just responding to what a gun lobby may be pushing as a solution.”