The last issue of the year is always a time for reflection, but this year we reflect on a profoundly different kind of year. COVID-19 changed so much of how we lived our daily lives, and this might be our new normal for quite some time. And sadly, even with a pandemic, we continued to grapple with startling numbers of another serious issue in our country: gun violence.
Publishing an entire issue on gun violence during these changing times is particularly timely. As a country this year, like many before, we've witnessed mass shootings, suicides, homicides, and firearms-related injuries — tragedies that will leave families, loved ones, communities, and many others reeling in pain for years. Yet in the United States we are still divided on how best to prevent gun violence and improve upon existing policies, despite evidence that gun control laws help prevent the kind of violence we are concerned about. Because of the challenges related to reducing gun violence, the talented authors of this issue have taken a multi-pronged approach to address this issue in “Gun Violence in America: An Interdisciplinary Examination.” Guest edited by Ian Ayres, Abbe R. Gluck, and Tracey L. Meares, this carefully organized issue pulls together scholars and practitioners from medical, legal, and academic fields who offer new perspectives and approaches. The authors of the 27 articles discuss gun violence as an important public health issue, and discuss in more detail the following: Extreme Risk Protection Orders; violence prevention programs; physicians' experiences and roles with gun violence; psychiatrists' understanding of patients' gun rights; firearms data systems improvement; purchaser licensing policy; mental illness; the effect of private corporations' policies on firearms suicides; youth firearm injuries; a behavioral addiction model of violence; and of course various arguments on Second Amendment sanctuaries, public safety, self-defense, among many other topics. Most of the issue can be found in these printed pages of the journal, but the remaining articles and all of the articles' appendices can be found online.
This issue is a fundamental roadmap for future gun violence research and policy, and we thank the excellent team at Yale University for their dedication to this issue. Because of them and all of the co-authors, we have a real opportunity to advance our understanding of how we may prevent unnecessary harm. If we have something to be hopeful about for 2021, may a decline in gun violence be one of them.
