New Book Says Science Provides Answers to Gun Violence
4/1/2004
Feature Story
by Dick Dahl
In the preface to his new book, "Private Guns, Public Health," David Hemenway of the Harvard School of Public Health tells a story about the goose problem that had befallen the municipality of Mamaroneck, NY in the early 1990s. A growing population of Canadian geese had set up continuous residence in one of the town's parks, and their droppings atop sidewalks, fields, and beach had become a public nuisance. In response, the village leaders obtained a federal permit to let hunters take care of the problem. At the last moment, though, someone came up with a plan that the village decided to try before allowing the shooting to commence. They hired a dog trainer with a couple of border collies to chase the birds away. The plan worked and no shots were fired.
To Hemenway, the small tale demonstrates a larger American truth. "For me, the story illustrates an important point--the immediate reaction to a problem for many people in the United States is to get a gun," he writes. "Yet it turns out that this response can often exacerbate the problem, while other actions may be far more effective."
With his new book, which is published by the University of Michigan Press and scheduled for release in April, Hemenway is seeking to inject a similar dose of common sense into a debate that is too often driven by politics and ideology instead of science. Hemenway directs the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, whose mission is to reduce injury of all kinds in the U.S. by sound scientific research. So it was natural, he explained in a recent interview, that he would develop an interest in gun violence.
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http://www.jointogether.org/z/0,2522,570165,00.html
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