Gun violence deaths rose almost 10% in 2021, with a yearly average of over 40,000 deaths and 100,000 injuries. The criminal approach to reducing firearm violence isn’t cutting it, which is why experts say the solution lies in public health, the same approach that eliminated diseases and reduced smoking deaths and car crashes. To learn more, Vitals host Sheena explores the potential of this gun violence reduction approach in her hometown of Philadelphia, and interviews two of the city’s public health experts, Dr. Jessica Beard and Dr. Sara Jacoby. She also chats with Philly-based gun violence activist Zarinah Lomax about mental health and the power of individual and community action.

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Find our experts and hosts:

:: Sheena William, RN ::
Twitter: @Keepingitkinky1
Instagram: @keepingitkinky

Our Guests:

Dr. Jessica Beard is a Temple University trauma surgeon and public health researcher.
Twitter: @jessicahbeard

Dr. Sara Jacoby is an assistant professor of nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and a senior scholar at the Penn Injury Science Center.
Twitter: @SaraFredricka

Zarinah Lomax is a Philadelphia-based gun violence activist and founder of The Apologues, a community museum telling the stories of victims of gun violence through art.
IG: @ZarinahLomax
Website: http://www.theapologues.org/


Want to Learn More?

Gun violence in Philadelphia
https://www.pcgvr.org/
https://www.inquirer.com/news/gun-vio...
https://www.inquirer.com/news/philade...

Firearm violence nationally
https://everytownresearch.org/report/...
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/decad...

The public health approach
https://efsgv.org/wp-content/uploads/...
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/communic...

Cleaning and greening interventions
https://phsonline.org/programs/transf...
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas...
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/comm...
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...

Other interventions
https://www.americanprogress.org/arti...

Other studies mentioned
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama...
https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.73...
https://search.issuelab.org/resource/...
https://www.kff.org/other/issue-brief...

This episode of Vitals is licensed exclusively to YouTube.

00:00 Intro
00:42 Gun violence getting worse?
01:19 A public health approach?
02:44 A decades-long ban…
03:30 Public health breakthroughs
04:18 Interventions that work
05:53 Cleaning and Greening Philly?
07:31 Community and Mental Health
10:53 Some limitations…
12:44 Outro: Sheena’s story