Just saw this in my FB newsfeed from the Gloucester Daily Times...Yeah such a huge "crisis" along the north shore....
http://www.gloucestertimes.com/news...cle_6f7c83e9-9853-5362-bbb9-5f7f88ab7eb8.html
Public health officials on Cape Ann and the North Shore have signed a statement calling gun violence a public health crisis and supporting certain measures for gun control.
Among these measures are a call for federal funding to allow the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to research the causes and effects of gun violence, support for universal background checks when buying a gun, and reinstating a federal ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.
Boards of Health members from Gloucester, Manchester, Essex, Salem, Saugus, Hamilton, Peabody, and Swampscott signed the statement.
They say the goal is to propose a public health framework that can be applied to the issue of gun violence in American society, comparing it to deaths by car accidents or smoking.
"Gloucester, among many other communities, is taking a forward-looking stance in terms of public health — this is a public health issue," said Gloucester Board of Health Chairman Dr. Richard Sagall. "If this many people were dying from some other cause we would be looking into it."
Many board members, when asked, said the document shouldn't be seen as a political statement on gun control.
"We don’t view this as a statement about gun control," Peabody's Director of Health Sharon Cameron said. "We view it as a statement about applying a public health framework to the problem of gun violence in our society."
Salem Health Agent Larry Ramdin said the local health officials would like to see research on the subject. The CDC won't touch the topic, however, since the "Dickey Amendment," passed in 1997, stipulated that no money for injury prevention and control at the CDC could be used to promote gun control.
"Given what we have and what we know now — which is really nothing — then we have to look at what is happening out there and make some conclusion," Ramdin said. "We need to look at this as a public health issue and research what the leading causes of this is and what are the contributing factors to it."
The statement was drafted over the past year by the Peabody Board of Health, which volunteered to take the lead on the initiative in terms of coordinating, according to Cameron. Most of the seven points included in the statement are recommendations from the American Public Health Association and the National Association of County and City Health Officials, she said.
"We took the seven we thought were the most critical. Most of the recommendations in this list are things that the public in general supports," Cameron said. "We didn’t want this seen as a political statement, we wanted it to be around public measures that have been successful around other topic areas. These are things that most of the public feel that they can support as well."
The initiative grew over a year ago during a meeting with the North Shore Shared Public Health Services program and later in the North Shore, Cape Ann Emergency Preparedness Coalition. During one of their meetings they pondered whether there is a role for health departments at the local level to help put out a message about a public health framework for gun violence.
"Myself and fellow public health officials across the region and nationally are extremely concerned about this significant public health issue and want to do our part to help raise awareness and urge policy-makers to take action," said Gloucester public health director Karin Carroll in a statement. "We urge our fellow local health practitioners, our elected officials at all levels of government, and the public at large to speak up and demand reasonable action to protect our communities from this preventable health crisis."
All Cape Ann and North Shore communities were invited to sign on.
A news release from the public health officials cites facts about gun violence, calling it an epidemic, including that it kills an average of 33,000 Americans prematurely each year. Over 21,000 of those deaths were suicides, according to the CDC. Another statistic noted the deadliest mass shooting in recent U.S. history in Las Vegas left 59 dead and 441 more injured.
"I think if we look at every single mass shooting that has happened in recent memory in this country, it involves very similar weapons, so to me that’s a no-brainer," said Swampscott Board of Health Chairwoman Marianne Hartmann, in regard to banning assault weapons.
"I understand Second Amendment rights, people do have these rights," she said. "(But) no one needs (assault weapons) for hunting, no one needs it for self-protection. There has to be an understanding as to needs for our safety versus our wants."
http://www.gloucestertimes.com/news...cle_6f7c83e9-9853-5362-bbb9-5f7f88ab7eb8.html
Public health officials on Cape Ann and the North Shore have signed a statement calling gun violence a public health crisis and supporting certain measures for gun control.
Among these measures are a call for federal funding to allow the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to research the causes and effects of gun violence, support for universal background checks when buying a gun, and reinstating a federal ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.
Boards of Health members from Gloucester, Manchester, Essex, Salem, Saugus, Hamilton, Peabody, and Swampscott signed the statement.
They say the goal is to propose a public health framework that can be applied to the issue of gun violence in American society, comparing it to deaths by car accidents or smoking.
"Gloucester, among many other communities, is taking a forward-looking stance in terms of public health — this is a public health issue," said Gloucester Board of Health Chairman Dr. Richard Sagall. "If this many people were dying from some other cause we would be looking into it."
Many board members, when asked, said the document shouldn't be seen as a political statement on gun control.
"We don’t view this as a statement about gun control," Peabody's Director of Health Sharon Cameron said. "We view it as a statement about applying a public health framework to the problem of gun violence in our society."
Salem Health Agent Larry Ramdin said the local health officials would like to see research on the subject. The CDC won't touch the topic, however, since the "Dickey Amendment," passed in 1997, stipulated that no money for injury prevention and control at the CDC could be used to promote gun control.
"Given what we have and what we know now — which is really nothing — then we have to look at what is happening out there and make some conclusion," Ramdin said. "We need to look at this as a public health issue and research what the leading causes of this is and what are the contributing factors to it."
The statement was drafted over the past year by the Peabody Board of Health, which volunteered to take the lead on the initiative in terms of coordinating, according to Cameron. Most of the seven points included in the statement are recommendations from the American Public Health Association and the National Association of County and City Health Officials, she said.
"We took the seven we thought were the most critical. Most of the recommendations in this list are things that the public in general supports," Cameron said. "We didn’t want this seen as a political statement, we wanted it to be around public measures that have been successful around other topic areas. These are things that most of the public feel that they can support as well."
The initiative grew over a year ago during a meeting with the North Shore Shared Public Health Services program and later in the North Shore, Cape Ann Emergency Preparedness Coalition. During one of their meetings they pondered whether there is a role for health departments at the local level to help put out a message about a public health framework for gun violence.
"Myself and fellow public health officials across the region and nationally are extremely concerned about this significant public health issue and want to do our part to help raise awareness and urge policy-makers to take action," said Gloucester public health director Karin Carroll in a statement. "We urge our fellow local health practitioners, our elected officials at all levels of government, and the public at large to speak up and demand reasonable action to protect our communities from this preventable health crisis."
All Cape Ann and North Shore communities were invited to sign on.
A news release from the public health officials cites facts about gun violence, calling it an epidemic, including that it kills an average of 33,000 Americans prematurely each year. Over 21,000 of those deaths were suicides, according to the CDC. Another statistic noted the deadliest mass shooting in recent U.S. history in Las Vegas left 59 dead and 441 more injured.
"I think if we look at every single mass shooting that has happened in recent memory in this country, it involves very similar weapons, so to me that’s a no-brainer," said Swampscott Board of Health Chairwoman Marianne Hartmann, in regard to banning assault weapons.
"I understand Second Amendment rights, people do have these rights," she said. "(But) no one needs (assault weapons) for hunting, no one needs it for self-protection. There has to be an understanding as to needs for our safety versus our wants."
