Doctors Believe Gun Violence is a Virus-Like Social Disease

Will take different approach to treating it

Public health experts believe gun violence should begin being treated as a social disease and now want a science-based, pragmatic approach to prevent harm from them. After treating victims from the Sikh temple shooting in Milwaukee, Dr. Stephen Hargarten said, "What I'm struggling with is, is this the new social norm? This is what we're going to have to live with if we have more personal access to firearms. We have a public health issue to discuss. Do we wait for the next outbreak or is there something we can do to prevent it?" The public health approach will look at "host" factors: what makes someone more likely to shoot, or someone more likely to be a victim; product features: Which firearms are most dangerous and why; and "environmental" risk factors: what conditions allow or contribute to shootings. About 260 million to 300 million firearms are owned by civilians in the United States; and about 9 percent of all violent crimes involve a gun - roughly 338,000 cases each year. (AP)

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