Myths About Gun Violence: June 2nd is National Gun Violence Awareness Day

by Gregg Chadwick

You may have noticed that many folks are wearing orange shirts today. Or perhaps a friend changed their avatar to orange. That's because today is National Gun Violence Awareness Day. In his press briefing this morning, current Presidential Press Secretary Sean Spicer gave a shout out to National Donut Day, but not National Gun Violence Awareness Day.  In a complete contrast Senator Kamala Harris expressed on twitter that ->

Women are 16x more likely to be killed with guns in the U.S than in other developed countries. What will it take for us to act? #WearOrange

There's a lot of misinformation going around about gun violence.
Here are the facts. #WearOrange pic.twitter.com/S7HxElYacn

— The Root (@TheRoot) June 2, 2017

 The Root created a powerful video (shown above) that clears up some of the misconceptions surrounding gun violence. AJ+ shows the human costs of gun violence in the video below:

Many will #WearOrange today on National Gun Violence Awareness Day.

This Chicago mother has pleaded for reform: pic.twitter.com/3ySLXBob5S

— AJ+ (@ajplus) June 2, 2017

According to @CDCgov, more than 90 Americans are killed every day with guns. The United States has the highest gun ownership rate in the world and the highest per capita rate of firearm-related murders of all developed countries.

There is hope and steps are being taken to learn more about the problem and to find solutions. Please take a moment and read Shannon Watts' article in Vogue Magazine which provides creative thoughts on how to channel your outrage on gun violence into action.
Link here:  http://every.tw/2smaZY5  

And importantly UC Davis Health has created a Violence Prevention Research Program:

"In the American Journal of Epidemiology, Dr. Magdalena Cerdá comments on the state-of-the-art evidence on gun violence organized around (1) the link between access to firearms and violence; (2) firearm violence related to substance abuse and affiliation with deviant social networks; and (3) approaches to violence prevention that span individual level interventions in the healthcare or home settings to state or national level interventions. This volume summarizes the epidemiology of firearms violence and highlights important gaps and priorities for future research on the risks, consequences, and prevention of gun violence. 

Read more:  Gun violence:  Risk, Consequences, and Prevention (PDF)"

Gregg Chadwick
The Future Is Woke
40"x30" oil on linen 2017