Policies to prevent firearm trafficking

Firearm Violence in the United States: An Issue of the Highest Moral Order

Firearm violence in the United States produces over 36,000 deaths and 74,000 sustained firearm-related injuries yearly. The paper describes the burden of firearm violence with emphasis on the disproportionate burden on children, racial/ethnic minorities, women and the healthcare system. Second, this paper identifies factors that could mitigate the burden of firearm violence by applying a blend of key ethical theories to support population level interventions and recommendations that may restrict individual rights. Such recommendations can further support targeted research to inform and implement interventions, policies and laws related to firearm access and use, in order to significantly reduce the burden of firearm violence on individuals, health care systems, vulnerable populations and society-at-large. By incorporating a blended public health ethics to address firearm violence, we propose a balance between societal obligations and individual rights and privileges.

Juveniles arrested for murder: A latent class analysis of male offenders

Researchers and practitioners have a need for valid and generalizable typologies of juvenile homicide offenders (JHOs) to better understand the heterogeneous nature of JHOs, and use this knowledge to inform prevention efforts. Prior studies of JHOs have typically utilized a clinical approach, which is rich in data but based on small nonrepresentative samples, or relied on larger aggregate datasets which are more reliable but have few measures available. This study aimed to address these limitations by examining the latent heterogeneity (i.e. unapparent differences) in JHOs, their victims, and incident characteristics among more than 40,000 male JHOs arrested in the United States between 1976 and 2016 using latent class analysis, to allow for the objective identification of latent taxonomies. Six distinct subtypes of male JHOs are found in the analysis, which contributes to the theoretical and substantive knowledge base regarding JHOs, and may be used to develop and implement more effective interventions and violence prevention programs for these young offenders.

State injury prevention policies and variation in death from injury

OBJECTIVES

Death from injury is frequently preventable, but injury remains a leading cause of death in the USA. While evidence-based strategies exist to prevent many types of injuries, effective policies for implementing these strategies at the population level are needed to reduce injury deaths. We identified promising injury prevention policies and evaluated their association with injury death rate (IDR).

METHODS

We identified 11 injury prevention policies and accessed data on 2013 state and county IDRs. States were divided into strong, moderate and weak tertiles based on total number of policies in place. Adjusted regression modelling compared the strength of state prevention policies with IDRs at the state level and then at the county level to account for variability within states.

RESULTS

The strength of state prevention policies (tertile) was not significantly associated with IDR in US states. However, counties in strong policy states had a 11.8-point lower IDR compared with those in weak policy states (p=0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

States with more injury prevention policies in place have lower rates of death from injury, particularly when evaluated at the county level. Implementing recommended prevention policies holds potential to prevent injury death in the USA.

Changing the constitutional landscape for firearms: the US Supreme Court's recent Second Amendment decisions

In 2 recent cases-with important implications for public health practitioners, courts, and researchers-the US Supreme Court changed the landscape for judging the constitutionality of firearm laws under the Constitution's Second Amendment. In District of Columbia v Heller (2008), the court determined for the first time that the Second Amendment grants individuals a personal right to possess handguns in their home. In McDonald v City of Chicago (2010), the court concluded that this right affects the powers of state and local governments. The court identified broad categories of gun laws-other than handgun bans-that remain presumptively valid but did not provide a standard to judge their constitutionality. We discuss ways that researchers can assist decision makers.

The ethics of restrictive licensing for handguns: comparing the United States and Canadian approaches to handgun regulation

The United States and Canada regulate firearms, particularly handguns, quite differently. With only a few state and local exceptions, the U.S. approach emphasizes the ability of most individuals to purchase, possess, and carry handguns. By comparison, Canada has a form of restrictive licensing for handguns that places a premium on community safety. The authors first review the potential individual and community level harms and benefits associated with these differing fre-arm policies. Using this information, they explore the ethical dimensions of the U.S. and Canadian approaches through three major themes of autonomy, prevention of harms, and social justice. The authors conclude that the Canadian approach is consistent with respect for the autonomy of persons, fosters the prevention of harms, and more appropriately furthers social justice.