"Gun Control" Ideas that Might Actually Pass and Reduce Mass Shootings, From a Doctor and a Gun Owner

I am a resident physician in General Surgery at the Baylor College of Medicine, and I work and train a great deal at Ben Taub- one of only two Level I trauma centers in Houston, and thus one that sees an extraordinary number of Houston's victims of gun violence. But I am also a gun-owner, who took up shooting in the Boy Scouts. And, I am the son of immigrants who refuse to touch firearms, but yet who were free to immigrate to America because of their invention. Like most of Houston, I am thus a study of contradictions, and this gives rise to some unique ideas and perspectives on how to prevent mass shootings and gun violence that may actually find support from both sides in this divided time.

America Doesn't Have a Gun Violence Epidemic- We Have a Poverty Epidemic and an Outbreak of School Shootings

Many people are talking about a gun violence epidemic.  This is understandable, in light of what seems like a never-ending stream of horrific school shootings.  Sandy Hook Elementary School, Santa Monica Community College, Arapahoe High School, UC Santa Barbara- the list goes on and on.

Those with more liberal views are responding to all this chaos and violence by going so far as to call for a repeal of the 2nd Amendment.  As you can imagine, this has predictably gone over quite well with the NRA and it's allies.  These are the folks who, in the immortal and inconceivably badly phrased words of President Obama, "cling to their guns and religion."  Matching the President's lack of tact with an insensitivity that borders on psychopathy, Joe the Plumber addressed the parents of the kids killed at UCSB by declaring, "your dead kids don't trump my constitutional rights."

Amidst all this back and forth between right and left is a shared delusion:  There IS NO gun violence epidemic.  There IS a school shooting epidemic.  These two problems are not the same.  And the solutions that can actually save hundreds if not thousands of lives become clear once the problems have been elicited and defined

The Political Picking of a Surgeon General

There's a bit of buzz in the news recently over President Obama's nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy.

On Guns and the Misuse of Science

Part 1 of 2, on Science and Gun Control
Part 2 of 2 will focus on more on the logic (or lack thereof) behind many gun control arguments.

Guns are one of the the most emotional topics in the United States today.  They mean such different things to different people.  In a sense, it's nearly useless to use science in the debate, because rather like abortion and civil rights it's not a scientific debate in the first place.  That said, it's deeply annoying when science (or more specifically, statistics) are used to justify any proposed gun policy.  I'm going to focus more on the gun-control side here, because the pro-gun-rights side really ignores the science anyway to cite moral arguments which are futile to argue against- how do you fight with someone's claimed right to defend themselves against others/their government?  And really, it is the pro-gun control advocates who are most guilty of misusing science and really abandoning all logic in their misguided crusade.