Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: America Has Failed Its Gun-Scarred Youth
CNN: Mass Shooting Traumas Stalk America's Children From Elementary School To College
A generation of kids who grew up haunted by the fear of school massacres can’t outgrow their trauma: It’s also stalking their carefree college days. America’s latest mass shooting, until the inevitable next one, wrote a new community in the roll call of colleges stigmatized by tragedy. To Virginia Tech, Northern Illinois and the University of Virginia, add Michigan State University. (Stephen Collinson, 2/15)
The Washington Post: Michigan State Shootings Are A Reminder: We Must Take The Guns Away
This time, the victims were students at Michigan State University. This time, the gunman had no apparent connection with the people he shot or the school they attended. This time, the assailant killed himself before we could learn why he went on his rampage. But we do know how: with a gun. ... The one certain way to reduce the intolerable toll of gun violence in this country is to keep guns out of the hands of those who would use them to kill. Michigan, finally, is prepared to try. (Eugene Robinson, 2/14)
CNN: Why We’re Still Unable To Prevent Mass Shootings
Although the Federal government uses large-scale surveys of Americans to understand trends in health and risk behaviors – such as consumption of drugs and alcohol, use of seatbelts, exercise habits, and even sexual practices – questions about ownership, storage, and use of firearms have been notably absent from national versions of these surveys for almost two decades. Indeed, one of the CDC’s flagship health behavior surveys included questions on gun ownership, but removed that question from the core module after 2004. As a result, many studies of the effects of gun violence prevention that need information on state firearm ownership rates must use data that are almost 20 years old. (Rosanna Smart and Andrew R. Morral, 2/14)
The Washington Post: After Parkland: What We’ve Learned Tracking School Shootings For 5 Years
The subject of school shootings often makes people feel hopeless, especially at a time when America is experiencing its worst stretch in history. But we have now studied 366 separate incidents of campus gun violence, and the data, along with dozens of stories on the damaged children it represents, has taught us that there are reasons to remain hopeful, none more so than this one: Most school shootings are preventable. That’s just one of the lessons we’ve learned about a singularly American epidemic. (John Woodrow Cox and Steven Rich, 2/14)
The Hill: Heroes And Villains In The Crusade Against Gun Violence
Feb.14 will be a day of love for many and mourning for others. It will be Valentine’s Day but also the fifth anniversary of the tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. An expelled student armed with an AR-15-style rifle, invaded the building and murdered 17 students and staff and wounded another 17 people. A day of love will forever be a day of loss for the grieving families there. (Brad Bannon, 2/13)
