• Adrian Toader-Williams

    Re: Gun Violence and The Violence in the Text of the USA Anthem and Arts

    Comment if I may: please read it in the broadcast as my question will be understood.

    The president Barack Obama made great steps towards increase awareness regarding gun violence as well as the overall armed conflicts. We still have a long way to go!

    We shall never forget that we share Earth under one God. One first step towards achieving world peace is being at peace with ourselves and setup ourselves as an example.

    One major step in reducing gun violence and violence in general, is to conduct ourselves as such and to raise our children in a more peaceful environment, therefore:

    We need to drop the violence in the movies, music, more so in the cartoons. With the development of the social networks and the YouTube, the task is much more difficult, but still, it is possible thru legislation and education.

    The text of the USA National Anthem is extremely violent, unjustified. The habit can be changed. The pride of blowing bombs and rackets etc does nothing but thru the effect of neurolinquistic programming properties of such texts we need not to be surprised that the violent behavior of the people persist. It became an „amplified” part our of human nature and it continues to be more so, „louder” , as the statistics show.

    If USA sets up an example by changing the Anthem’s text to a more pacifist message, will set an example to other nations, such as France (also a violent anthem) and others, and add to the positive image of the
    American Nation across the World.

    Questions to the panel:

    1) What is your point of view regarding the effect of the US National Anthem text upon the violence ?

    2) What about the effect of the text change, possibility and the probability of having a positive influence
    upon the social behavior, in time the reduction of violence ?

    3) How do you think that the American people will embrace a such proposition to change the National
    Anthem ?

    4) What about the increase awareness of the movie makers, can we introduce some „incentives” as to reduce violence in cinema and television, as well as the internet?

    Thank you for your attention. I follow your broadcasts with great interest from here from Europe where I conduct my research activity at this time.

    Adrian Toader – Williams, PhD .
    Bioeconomist

  • The Forum Moderator

    Welcome all. Our panel is about to begin.

  • The Forum Moderator

    We are beginning. Thanks again for joining us.

  • The Forum Moderator

    This event is in collaboration with Reuters.

  • The Forum Moderator

    And this clip is courtesy of Reuters.

  • The Forum Moderator

    As our moderator, Scott Malone, noted in his intro, news outlets are reporting that authorities are investigating a possible shooter in San Diego now. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-california-shooter-idUSKCN0V425R

  • The Forum Moderator

    The paper to which Professor Earls is referring is here: http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/abs/10.1176/appi.ajp.2013.12091256 and an accompanying editorial is here: http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/abs/10.1176/appi.ajp.2013.13060818

  • The Forum Moderator

    More about the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence here: http://smartgunlaws.org/

  • The Forum Moderator

    This clip is courtesy of Reuters.

  • KayakMomma

    When you put a gun in your hand you change psychologically. The power a gun gives to a person is unmistakable. It is all about power.

  • KayakMomma

    I am a one issue voter. Because of Sandy Hook. And I will only support a candidate that will say they will do everything they can.

    • The Forum Moderator

      Thank you for adding your comments.

  • The Forum Moderator

    We will have a brief Q&A during this discussion. You can email your questions for the panelists to theforum@hsph.harvard.edu or post them here. We will try to get to as many of them as we can.

  • Greenwich Council

    Question for David King: what do you think accounts for the shift in thinking over the past 2-3 years? You say we can’t change minds, so why do you think change in framing the conversation (violence –> public health) will do so? Do you see any evidence that gun rights groups will change their thinking? (we do agree that the public health approach may work better, but not because it changes views of gun extremists.) Thanks.

  • MedicalGeologist

    In Medical Geology, we have a saying – “Genetics loads the gun, environment pulls the trigger”. This includes many things, including water and air quality and nutrition as well as emotional/psychological factors. But to keep the focus on biogeochemistry, if you overlay prescription or recreational drug use onto the at-the-tap water chemistry data, things get really interesting and you get one BIG step closer to science-based policy…which ought to be non-partisan.

  • Joe Eaton

    Not power . . . safety. Safety of our family and self.

    • KayakMomma

      Disagree. A gun in your hand has a very powerful influence on your behavior.

  • CoCo

    David King: RMGO organized armed PROTESTS at the 1 year memorial for the victims at AURORA, CO. They are the Westboro of gun rights. You called them “fabulous”? Gimme a break.

  • KayakMomma

    Maine voters will be deciding in ’16 if background checks will be universal.

  • CoCo

    Nebraska is fighting a superpreemption bill right now, today. Even Rs who passed bill out of committee are backpedaling because it’s so awful.

  • CoCo

    High 5 Dr. Hemenway on gun owner peer-to-peer outreach. “Friends don’t let friends drive drunk”, for guns.

  • The Forum Moderator

    Thanks to all of our viewers for your comments here.

  • KayakMomma

    If UBC includes transfers how do you address the giving a gun to a friend to prevent a suicide without a background check?

  • Greenwich Council

    Same “experiment” happened in Israel when active duty soldiers were prohibited from taking guns home over the weekend. Suicide rate went down, and did not shift to weekdays.

  • CoCo

    Not strictly within the public health rubric — but accidental shootings by/of kids — prosecution, when it happens, skews very heavily on minorities also, regardless of whether state has CAP laws.

    • Greenwich Council

      Unintentional, not accidental! Only negligence leads to kids getting injured/killed.

  • KayakMomma

    We can help finance gun research. I just gave to Dr. Hemenway’s research. If 1 million of us give $10 a month that is $10 million a year.

  • Muad

    Will this be posted after the forum is completed?

    • The Forum Moderator

      Thanks for asking. Yes, we will post the full-length video on this page, likely tomorrow or Thursday. We also will post on on YouTube and iTunes U, along with the podcasts.

  • Armed With Reason

    We have a question for everybody, but particularly Dr. Hemenway. From a layperson’s perspective, it can often be difficult to tell whether a study can be relied on or not, as most of them tend to use complex econometrics. Is there a good guide to help people figure out which studies are trustworthy?

    Thanks,
    Evan and Devin

    • KayakMomma

      If a peer reviewed and published in a well respected professional journal I would consider it to be reliable and valid.

    • Mary V

      Medical and public health journals are peer-reviewed. Law reviews are not. Economics and Criminology journals also use peer-review, but those fields are more likely to use econometrics and other advanced modeling to draw inferences about whether X is related to Y, whereas you will find more case-control studies and simple analyses of large datasets of real people (e.g. compare the number of dead people to the number of gun owners in each state- just the raw numbers) in medicine and public health. This is one reason you find VERY different conclusions about the relationship between guns and health in the medical literature than about guns and crime in the criminology literature. Crime is much more difficult to study, and also no peer-review process is flawless, but I do believe the data and methods used to study injury and death in the public health literature are much more straightforward.

  • CoCo

    The Iron Pipeline connection vis a vis urban gun violence — are there studies that track stolen guns as the source of crime guns from souther states, into urban cities like camden/newark/nyc etc? It seems a great public health risk that brick/mortar FFLs are basically unregulated in terms of security in all but 9 states — so a 2 minute smash ‘n grab can net dozens of guns that hit I-95 and end up at crime scenes.

  • KayakMomma

    Most criminals get their guns through straw purchasers. Are there any effective strategies to clamp down on these purchases?

    • Joe Eaton

      The National Shooting Sports Foundation’s “Don’t Lie for the Other Guy” and the NRA’s “Project Exile” both are the ones I am aware of

      • KayakMomma

        Yes I have contacted them to ask for a kit to take to local dealers. But they have not responded.

    • Greenwich Council

      Better access to trace data so ATF and others can identify negligent gun dealers and reform them (5% of dealers account for ~90% of guns sold that later turn up in crimes).

  • Greenwich Council

    Gun seizure laws (CT, CA, IN?) can help since we can never define the set of criteria to identify people at risk of violence (themselves or others). These laws let families petition courts/law enforcement to take firearms away. Could have prevented Isla Vista mass shooting, and others.

  • The Forum Moderator

    Thank you all for your comments and questions. Looks like our event is starting to wrap up.

  • The Forum Moderator

    Quick reminder that we will post the full-length video on this page tomorrow or Thursday. We also will post on on YouTube and iTunes U, along with the podcasts.

    • Adrian Toader-Williams

      Will a full text transcript be available ? PDF format?

  • The Forum Moderator

    We thank all of our panelists and moderator, as well as our media collaborator, Reuters.

  • The Forum Moderator

    Join us again:
    The Aging Workforce: Challenges and Benefits for the Public’s Health
    Live Webcast: Thursday, February 11, 2016
    12:30-1:30pm ET
    ForumHSPH.org

  • The Forum Moderator

    Thank you again!