School of Social and Political Science

Description

Abstract:

The global burden of gun violence is enormous, accounting for over 250,000 deaths each year, with hundreds of thousands of injuries, many with permanent disabilities. The disruption of families and communities, cities and states, is staggering. Framing Gun Violence as a public health burden pulls in sciences that have helped us understand and combat infectious diseases. This seminar will use this background and further frame gun violence as a complex biopsychosocial disease.  The seminar will focus on the pathogen of this disease (the bullet) and the vector,(the gun). Recently developed state-of-the art videos will be presented, displaying the distinctive elements of the bullet’s “behaviour” in simulated tissue.  Several different types of bullets will be presented. Additional discussion will include defining firearms as a commercial determinant of health.

Biography: 

Stephen Hargarten received his MD from the Medical College of Wisconsin, (1975) and his MPH from Johns Hopkins, (1984). He is Professor of Emergency Medicine, Founding Dean of Global Health and the founding Director of the Comprehensive Injury Center, (CIC), at the Medical College of Wisconsin.  Dr. Hargarten’s research interests reflect an intersection of injury and violence prevention and health policy to address the burden of this complex biopsychosocial disease. His work in linking data systems for understanding violent deaths helped to inform the development of CDC’s National Violent Death Reporting System.  He leads ballistics investigations with bullets linked to civilian deaths and injuries.  He has recently been awarded a National Endowment of Humanities grant (with colleagues at Wesleyan University) to study gun safety patents (From 1750-2010). Dr. Hargarten was inducted into the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars and was elected to the Institute of Medicine, (now the National Academy of Medicine, NAM) of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), in 2011.  He was the founding President of the Society for the Advancement of Violence and Injury Research (SAVIR).  He currently serves on the Community Preventive Services Task Force of the CDC as Vice-Chair.