In a recent advisory, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H.
Murthy declared America's firearm violence a public health crisis that requires the nation's immediate awareness and action. Since 2020, firearm‐related injury has been the leading cause of death for U.S.
children and adolescents, surpassing motor vehicle crashes, cancer and drug overdose and poisoning, according to the advisory. In 2022, 48,204 total people died from firearm‐related injuries, including suicides, homicides and unintentional deaths. The Firearm Violence Advisory cited the work of several Northwestern faculty, and Northwestern Now spoke to three of them about the impact of gun violence and potential solutions.
"This report is another wake-up call for solutions to address the staggering toll gun violence continues to inflict on Americans each year," said Andrew Papachristos, whose research on secondary traumatic stress among community violence interventionists in Chicago was cited in the advisory. "Our research points to a way forward. It starts with an investment in street outreach workers, who use their lived experiences with gun violence to help break the cycle of violence.
" "These unarmed workers work in community violence intervention, or CVI, programs in communities that see the most violence. In one Chicago CVI program, we saw a double-digit decline in violence-related arrests. The participants stopped carrying guns, getting into fights and robbing or shooting people—calming communities and saving .
