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I've been struggling to write this for days (weeks?) now. And though we have gun deaths every single day here in #Philadelphia, tonight's ongoing standoff in North Philly has finally given me the words I've been searching for. (1/?)
Gun violence in our nation is a public health crisis. We must address it that way. When we treated deaths from car accidents that way, when we studied it, formed hypotheses, tested them, and changed our laws based on the results, those deaths were reduced significantly. (2/?)
We must take a scientific, evidence-based approach & we must solve this problem. It IS solvable; the people of this country want to solve it; some politicians even want to solve it. The only ones who don't want to solve it are the NRA and the people in their pockets. (3/?)
This is not about the 2nd Amendment. This in not about taking away people's guns. This is about solving a public health crisis that is killing tens of thousands of people in America every year. (4/?)
Let's tackle it the same way we would tackle any other public health crisis: with research, with science, and with data. (5/?)
The City of Philadelphia is prohibited from passing the gun reforms we would like to by Pennsylvania state law. Too many of our elected officials in Harrisburg are unwilling to pass the changes necessary to protect our residents. (6/?)
We need national leadership to address this concern for all people living here. The time is long past due for policy and change. Thoughts and prayers haven't been cutting it for a long time. Maybe they never did. (7/?)
This article is in the Sept issue of @DiscoverMag. I saw it on my Kindle just before the El Paso shooting. A sad coincidence, for sure. It's helped me formulate some of my thoughts about policy and change on this subject. (8/8)
