Why Addressing Gun Violence as a Health Crisis Is Crucial for Change

It partly has to do with the fact that gun violence is framed as a “political or criminal justice problem,” said Dr. Megan Ranney, MPH, FACEP, associate professor of emergency medicine at Rhode Island Hospital/Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and a director and assistant dean of the Brown Institute for Translational Science. 

“The forgotten underlying issue is when someone pulls the trigger, it causes health problems — the pulling of a trigger is no different than someone eating unhealthily or using substances or driving without a seatbelt on,” said Ranney, who’s a practicing emergency room physician as well as health policy researcher.