Treat Gun Violence as a Social Disease, Say Experts

Health experts in the United States have claimed that the best way to reduce gun violence is to treat it as a social disease even as analysts said that there was no "simple formula" for preventing gun-related crimes.

Gun control laws in the US are firmly in focus following a spate of violence over the last month including the Colorado theatre shooting where 12 people lost their lives and the Sikh temple shooting in Wisconsin which left six people dead.

A number of experts across the country say that gun violence should be seen as a public health issue and merit a science-based, pragmatic approach instead of simply making the existing gun laws strict.

The view has been backed by a number of other analysts, including Paul Barrett who authored a book detailing the history of Glock handgun. "There's a relationship between the presence of guns and the lethality of crime, but there is not a cause-and-effect, simple formula that will solve crime problems by simply regulating, in slightly different ways, how easily you can acquire a gun", he said.


Source: Medindia