Researchers show 'profound' racial disparity in Philadelphia gun violence
March 8, 2017
"Deaths and injuries from gun violence occur at higher rates in the United States compared to other developed countries. Yet, there has been relatively little public health research aimed at understanding and preventing this important threat to health. In a Viewpoint published this week in JAMA Surgery, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, argue for more research on firearm injury, including the establishment of a national database on incidents of gun violence. The authors point to recent research showing that in Philadelphia, gun murders and injuries are much more strongly associated with race than neighborhood income levels.
"Firearm violence is still largely a taboo research subject," said lead author Jessica Beard, MD, MPH, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of Traumatology, Surgical Critical Care, and Emergency Surgery at Penn Medicine. "We struggle to obtain even basic information on its epidemiology. We need data to accurately assess the overall extent and geographic distribution of this problem."
As trauma surgeons in Philadelphia, Beard and co-author Carrie A. Sims, MD, MS, an associate professor of Traumatology, Surgical Critical Care, and Emergency Surgery, routinely treat victims of gun violence in the city. Although they acknowledge that perfecting the clinical management of gunshot wound patients is important, they believe that the best way to address this public health problem is to prevent it.
"When we save a patient in the operating room, we feel great, and yet despite our hard work the patients keep coming," Sims said. "Sometimes we feel powerless to address the deeper causes of this problem."
With colleagues from the Penn Injury Science Center, Beard and Sims have been researching the epidemiology of gun violence in Philadelphia. In a study published in the March issue of the American Journal of Public Health, the Penn team analyzed statistics on firearm assaults in Philadelphia during 2013-14. Results showed that the gun murders and injuries were much more strongly associated with race than with neighborhood income levels. People living in relatively high-income black neighborhoods, for example, suffered a rate of firearm assault almost 16 times higher than that experienced by people living in white neighborhoods with the same income.
According to police data analyzed by the researchers, more than 80 percent of victims offirearm injuries reported in Philadelphia were black, and less than 6 percent were non-Hispanic whites.
"This racial/ethnic disparity is the 'elephant in the room' of firearm injury epidemiology," Beard said. In the new essay, she and Sims argue for more research and scientific resources to explain this disparity, which they suggest may be rooted in structural inequality and other social factors that are amenable to policy interventions.
"We as trauma surgeons need to work with our surgical associations and members of government to advocate for more research funding to determine the root causes of this important public health problem—and to start identifying effective prevention strategies," Beard said.
In a 2013 "Statement on Firearm Injuries," the American College of Surgeons called for a national database on these injuries—which would allow researchers to track trends and determine if interventions are working. Beard and Sims echo this recommendation, saying that such a database would be a basic first step towards understanding and addressing the problem of urban gun violence in America."
> (Bold italics above are mine)
> Now, I would like to ask the liberals on this board how it is that they can accept the scientific evidence that CO2 released in myriad processes by humans digging around in tectonically-sequestered carbon stores deep inside the earth is upsetting the balance and leading to the rapid changes we are seeing in global climate patterns but steadfastly refrain from accepting the science when it comes to gun violence in this country, even ensuring as the article above, which appeared two days ago, states that "[f]irearm violence is still largely a taboo research subject"?
There is no difference between this and the ongoing attempts by climate change deniers and Republican elected officials to "disappear" climate research from government websites and attempts being made to shut down climate researchers. While at least in the scientific community well over 90% support the climate change conclusions, no sociologist or historian or even epidemiologist interested in keeping his or her job at a University would risk being labeled a "racist" simply for wanting to do research into the nuts and bolts of gun violence in America. What goes for Philadelphia goes for Baltimore, Chicago, Miami, Detroit, and LA.
Until that changes, Democrat denials of these racial (not racist) realities and their attempts to make laws instead to undermine the individual right to keep and bear arms will continue to push the white working class away and undermine severely their credibility on most other issues by association with this delusional refusal to honestly approach one of our most serious problems as a society. And it will give us more Trump.
I'm not a racist, far from it. I had both civilian and military friends who were black during my time at KSU. The first time I heard the terms "bloods" and "crips" was from a friend in the dorm who almost whispered the words when he said them-- he wasn't from LA, played JV basketball for KSU, and said these gangs were moving into his city and terrorizing the people long before the crack epidemic hit. I knew a large percentage of the rest of the JV basketball team as well-- they came to my dorm room often and we would talk about anything. They seemed to respect my faith and my opinions about scripture and were always very honest with me as I was with them.
I later had a black roommate and best friend while living in another city who had been picked up on a bus every Saturday by the Black Panthers in the 60s, fed breakfast, helped with basic school work (more than adequately), and then indoctrinated with history that was in some ways true and in other ways not true but it gave him pride in who and what he was and this helped him succeed. We argued a lot, and I learned a lot. I like to think he did too.
In fact, the number of friendships I had with black Americans from all walks of life (even had a black landlord), as well as citizens of various African and Caribbean nations, in school and out of school, are too large in number for me to even easily remember, but each one taught me a lot. And so I understand-- and am willing to say what I understand on a public forum-- a great deal about the historical, economic, political, and most importantly-- cultural foundations of the many problems facing black people in America today, especially the reasons behind the high rates of gun violence in that community.
That's all I'll say until or unless someone responds except for including the following two links which say more than I can anyway:
I saw this on HBO at a relative's house, must be 20 years ago now, and finally somebody put it up on youtube. It's anecdotal, tells one man's story, but it resonates with so much I myself have seen and experienced, and it contains an explanation for the words I used in the thread title above. I think this man is a scholar of life (CAUTION-- NSFW or children language!):
Also, I came across this quote a couple of years ago and it also resonates with much I have seen and experienced personally, and is horrifying:
"He got a few things right, like that there is a lot of killing going on in Chicago. I know a couple of my homies, they don't want no jobs. Maybe a couple of odd jobs. I offered some of my homies to come with me sometimes, and they don't want to do that. They'd rather sit on a corner. That's all they know. Really it's the young kids who are doing all the killing, and they don't want no jobs. Their momma got Section 8, they got they food stamps, they good—they got nothing to worry about. They just worry about their own little reputation, how they can be cool. And the cool thing to do is kill somebody."
~Rapper Lil Bibby commenting on Spike Lee's movie 'Chi-Raq'.
The Fader
https://www.thefader.com/2015/12/10/lil-bibby-spike-lee-chiraq-real
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