Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

Search Results

You searched for: -

There are 315 results  for your search.  View and Refine Your Search Terms

  • Chicago murder rate drops for second year in a row

    Data-driven policing, higher rates of gun seizures, increased hiring and a focus on improving community trust have positively impacted Chicago police. For second year in a row, the city saw a drop in murder rates, shootings, robberies, burglaries and carjackings.

    Read More

  • Poisoned Wildlife and Tainted Meat: Why Hunters Are Moving Away From Lead Bullets

    An elk hunt in Oregon shows one way states regulate lead ammunition by prohibiting hunters from firing lead bullets in some state wildlife areas. It’s part of a wider effort to eradicate lead ammunition that can contaminate game animals as well as other species that scavenge their carcasses. Other states and the federal government have tried more widespread bans, but those have brought pushback, while alternative approaches include education and financial incentives to avoid lead ammunition.

    Read More

  • Hospitals Are Trying To Do What Politicians Haven't: Stop Gun Violence

    The Capital Region Violence Intervention Program uses the "golden moment" when gunshot victims are receptive to guidance, in the initial hours of their hospitalization, to steer them away from retaliatory violence and enroll them in mental health and job counseling. About 30 hospital-based violence intervention programs around the country provide such services, which have been shown to reduce violent injury and death, though such studies have been small in scale. The capital region program's first 100 patients avoided further harm, a far better than average result.

    Read More

  • Gun Shops Work With Doctors To Prevent Suicide By Firearm

    In Colorado, where 80 percent of gun deaths are suicides, a coalition of gun shop owners, public health researchers and doctors works to raise awareness of suicide and the role of firearms in those deaths. Staff in gun shops are trained to look for signs of mental distress in customers and participating shops have pamphlets on suicide prevention. The coalition also helps train medical professionals about guns so they can speak to patients with authority.

    Read More

  • I looked for a state that's taking gun violence seriously. I found Massachusetts.

    Massachusetts' strict gun-licensing laws make gun buyers jump through many hoops before they can buy and possess a firearm, part of a broader set of policies and factors that give the state the lowest gun death rate in the U.S. A permit-to-purchase law treats guns much like cars, with license and registration required. Police can deny gun permits even when applicants pass all background checks and meet other requirements. All guns, even those sold in private transactions, must be registered with the state and are subject to confiscation under the state's red-flag law for disarming dangerous people.

    Read More

  • Firearms And Dementia: How Do You Convince A Loved One To Give Up Their Guns?

    With the rate of dementia expected to double in the next 20 years and estimates that nearly half the people over age 65 own guns, advocates are working to get dementia patients and their families to focus on gun safety. Like driving, guns can represent independence so creating a non-threatening way to talk about removing guns is key. One suggestion by advocates is to create a version of an advanced directive specifically for guns that can include transferring them to a trusted caretaker.

    Read More

  • In Sacramento, trying to stop a killing before it happens

    Sacramento is implementing a program developed in 2011 in Richmond, Calif., that showed success curtailing gun violence among young men caught up in gangs or potential shootings. They get numerous social services and mentoring from men previously incarcerated. Stipends are a controversial part of the program, but a review of the Richmond program in 2015 found most participants were still alive and had not suffered a gun related injury, or been arrested for gun-related activity.

    Read More

  • Melt Thy Rifles Into Garden Tools

    Raw Tools, is a nonprofit that converts guns into garden tools. The organization was created by Michael Martin, a pastor who wanted to do something after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School that resulted in the death 20 children and six educators. “You’re taking a weapon of death and turning it into the complete opposite, which is life.”

    Read More

  • What is the public health approach to violence — and does it work?

    Public health approaches to violence, in which different sectors and agencies treat it as a contagious disease, has gained support across the world and has taken many forms. This approach relies on data collection to inform policy and devise services, as well as routine checks on the effectiveness of interventions and scaling the ones that work. While the public health approach to violence has saved costs and reduced police-recorded violence, there are ethical concerns about the widespread data gathering.

    Read More

  • Operation Ceasefire: Inside a Community's Radical Approach to Gang Violence

    Operation Ceasefire, known as the “Boston miracle,” abandoned traditional policing’s responses to street violence, which caused severe racial tensions, and created a community coalition that used a carrot-and-stick model of targeting people at risk of suffering or committing violence, threatening them with punishment but offering instead social services if they put their guns down. After dramatically reducing violence in Boston in the early 1990s, it spread nationwide. But this highly targeted enforcement method can fail when it isn’t done by the book or sustained over a long period.

    Read More