Guns—Injuries and Fatalities - Availability Of Guns

Public health officials who seek to reduce injuries and deaths from firearms point to the ready availability of guns, especially handguns and, more recently, assault guns, as a major obstacle. They believe that injuries and deaths would be reduced if guns were harder to acquire and if they were properly stored. Opposing them are gun owners, who believe that the use of guns for self-defense prevents many injuries and deaths.

According to David Hemenway in Private Guns, Public Health (Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press, 2004), supporters of a public-health approach to gun safety and gun manufacturers can work together to reduce gun injuries and death. He suggested several actions for gun manufacturers to reduce gun violence:

• Help increase the efficiency of law enforcement efforts
• Increase the safety of guns
• Do not develop new products that pose a danger to public health
• Fund and implement technological innovations that increase gun safety.