Kathleen Carlson, Ph.D., writes that reducing gun violence doesn’t have to be politicized. “Just as previous public health initiatives have reduced injuries without banning cars or cigarettes, we can also save lives and prevent gun-related injuries.” (OHSU/Christine Torres Hicks)
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, the nation’s top public health spokesperson, recently issued a historic advisory on gun violence, marking a major milestone in addressing gun violence as a public health issue.
Kathleen Carlson, Ph.D. (OHSU)
As director of the Gun Violence Prevention Research Center at Oregon Health & Science University, I can only support taking a public health approach to reducing the immense harm that gun violence causes our children, families, and communities. In fact, Dr. Murthy’s opinion highlights some of the same research, practices, and policy strategies that encompass our center’s work to reduce gun deaths and injuries in Oregon.
At our core, we focus on evaluating policies and practices using a public health approach similar to the successful efforts made in recent decades to reduce road traffic injuries and tobacco-related diseases.
In Multnomah County, we are collaborating with community organizations, faith groups, social service agencies, criminal justice organizations, and survivors to examine incidents of interpersonal gun violence and identify missed opportunities for intervention—to prevent similar tragedies in the future. Additionally, we are studying the use of Oregon’s Extreme Risk Protection Order law statewide and the impact of Healing Hurt People, a hospital-based violence intervention program led by the Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center, at OHSU and Legacy Emanuel Medical Center.
Our center also focuses on reducing unintentional firearm injuries and suicides, which don’t always make headlines but still account for the vast majority of gun violence-related injuries and deaths in our state. We train OHSU medical students to talk to patients about firearm storage practices, and we engage veterans and health care professionals from the VA Portland Health Care System to develop a culturally competent firearm injury prevention toolkit tailored to rural veterans.
To solve a problem, we must first understand the underlying data. To that end, our center worked with state officials and emergency services to generate the first statewide firearm injury report and data dashboard in 2022.
While the issue of gun violence is complex and often politicized, we believe that preventing these deaths is not a political issue of “left” or “right.” Just as previous public health initiatives have reduced injuries without banning cars or cigarettes, we can also save lives and prevent gun-related injuries.
Kathleen Carlson, Ph.D., directs the OHSU Center for Gun Violence Prevention Research. She is an injury epidemiologist in the OHSU-Portland State University School of Public Health and a principal investigator in the VA Portland Center for Health Services Innovation Research.
