January 19, 2016 – Gun Deaths

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Anchor lead:  Sobering statistics from the CDC have been released on gun-related death nationally, Elizabeth Tracey reports

For the first time, Americans have a better chance of being killed by a gun than dying in a car accident, new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal.  Mike Klag, dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, says improved public health measures relative to car travel are key, and that’s not the case with firearms.

Klag:  We’ve been prevented by law from doing many of the things that helped us save lives with traffic injuries.  We haven’t been able to do those with gunshot wounds, for example, we’re not allowed to do research, the CDC cannot fund research on prevention of gunshot wounds.  Many of the things that the American people believe are reasonable, such as people with a criminal record or mental illness should not have access to firearms, we’re not allowed to act to enforce those beliefs and turn them into regulations and laws.  So we have many barriers and this is what happens.   :30

Klag advocates for a common sense approach to the problem of reducing gun violence in the United States.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.