Mass shootingBroader background checks, denial criteria may help prevent mass-shooting catastrophes
Garen Wintemute, a leading authority on gun violence prevention and an emergency medicine physician at the University of California, Davis, believes broader criteria for background checks and denials on gun purchases can help prevent future firearm violence, including mass shooting catastrophes such as those that occurred at Sandy Hook, Aurora, Virginia Tech, and Columbine
Garen Wintemute, a leading authority on gun violence prevention and an emergency medicine physician at the University of California, Davis, believes broader criteria for background checks and denials on gun purchases can help prevent future firearm violence, including mass shooting catastrophes such as those that occurred at Sandy Hook, Aurora, Virginia Tech, and Columbine.
“To reduce the number of deaths and injuries from firearms in the United States, we need to develop policies that require background checks for all firearm purchases, including private-party sales — the most important source of firearms for criminal buyers and others who are prohibited from purchasing guns,” said Wintemute, director of the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program and inaugural Susan P. Baker-Stephen P. Teret Chair in Violence Prevention at UC Davis.
“We need to prevent individuals with a previous conviction for a misdemeanor violent crime, such as assault and battery, from purchasing or possessing a firearm. We also need to develop better data and criteria that allow us to distinguish between those with a treatable mental disorder who do not have a history of violence from those with a history of violence or substance abuse,” he said.
Wintemute’s views posted on the Online First section of the New England Journal of Medicine Web site as a Perspective article, entitled “Tragedy’s Legacy,” on 26 December 2012. It also will appear in the journal’s 31 January 2013 print edition.
A UC Davis Health System release reports that according to Wintemute, the United States represents only 5 percent of the world’s population, but it owns more than 40 percent of all firearms which are in civilians’ hands. In addition, he believes that policies governing gun purchases and use have allowed the widest possible array of firearms to be available to the widest group of people, for use under the widest array of conditions. Wintemute specifically cites the “Stand Your Ground” laws, enacted at the state level, as dangerous experiments that have been used to legitimize shootings that once were considered to be murder.
Wintemute emphasizes taking a broad approach.
“It may be impossible to predict the next mass shooting incident, and we cannot expect interventions designed for specific circumstances to eliminate the risk of firearm violence. But we can change our firearms laws, based on existing evidence, to reduce harm and better ensure public safety,” he said.
“Some 40 percent of all firearm transactions, for example, involve private-party
