Doctors, health experts set minds to making meaning of the senseless and speak of gun violence as a social disease

Public health experts now speak of guns in the same way they speak about viruses, cars, tobacco, and alcohol. After the most recent in a long list of mass shootings in the U.S.—and a recent incident in Toronto—there are calls for a fresh look at gun violence as a social disease, necessitating a public health response. The shocking, senseless violence occurs as violent crime and murder rates have been dropping. One doctor, involved in treating the victims of the Wisconsin Sikh temple shootings, asks: “Is this the new social norm?” (more…)