Public Health Approach

These articles summarize the public health problems caused by firearms, and the public health approach to reducing firearm injuries.

1.Hemenway, David. “A public health approach to firearms policy” in Mechanic, David; Rogut, Lynn B; Colby, David C; Knickman, James R. eds. Policy Challenges in Modern Health Care. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005. pp. 85-98.

2. Hemenway, David. The public health approach to reducing injury and violence. Stanford Law and Policy Review. 2006, 17:635-56.

3. Hemenway, David; Miller, Matthew. Public health approach to the prevention of gun violence. New England Journal of Medicine. 2013; 368:2033-35.

4. Hemenway D. The public health approach to violence prevention. Voigt L, Harper DW, Thornton WE, Jr., eds. Preventing Lethal Violence in New Orleans. Lafayette, LA: University of Louisiana Press. 2015.

5. Hemenway D. Reducing firearm violence. Crime and Justice. Reinventing American Criminal Justice. 2017; 46:201-230.

This long article explains the public health approach to gun violence and describes ten policies that could substantially reduce the problem. The article appeared in an edited volume in one of the most widely read journals for criminologists.

6. Hemenway D. An injury prevention class exercise—three pronged list making. Injury Prevention. 2019; 25:565-569.

This article provides a description of a class exercise that helps students broaden their approach for policies and programs that can reduce firearm and other injuries.

7. Hemenway D. Importance of firearm research. Injury Prevention. 2019; 25:i1

8. Hemenway D, Miller M. Reducing firearm violence—why a public health approach is helpful. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. 2019; 38:795-801.

The public health approach to reduce the problems of motor vehicles, tobacco and alcohol is applied to firearms policy. Manufacturers try to focus prevention efforts on the user rather than the product. Public health efforts emphasize systematic data collection and a multi-faceted policy approach that includes modifying the product and the environment.

Mozaffarian, Dariush; Hemenway, David; Ludwig, David S. Curbing gun violence: Lessons from public health successes. JAMA. 2013; 309:551-52.

Hemenway, David. The public health approach to motor vehicles, tobacco, and alcohol, with applications to firearms policy. Journal of Public Health Policy. 2001; 22:381-402.

A chapter in the book focuses on future success stories and includes a summary of policies aimed at reducing firearm injury.

Hemenway, David. Future Successes. In: While We Were Sleeping: Success Stories in Injury and Violence Prevention. University of California Press; May 2009.

This viewpoint discusses social norms that could be changed to reduce suicide, gun trafficking, accidents and interpersonal violence, with examples of successes in norm changes from other fields.

Hemenway, David. Preventing gun violence by changing social norms. JAMA-Internal Medicine. 2013;173(13):1167-8.