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Treating Gun Violence As A Public Health Issue — Easier Said Than Done

As homicides continue to tick up in St. Louis, many officials say gun violence should be approached as a public health issue.
Tony Webster | Flickr
As homicides continue to tick up in St. Louis, many officials say gun violence should be approached as a public health issue.

The nationwide debate about gun control, mass shootings, and violent crime was once again jump-started in the wake of recent massacres at a county center in California and at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado that left several people dead.

But here in St. Louis, officials are concerned with a different type of gun violence — the kind that happens almost routinely and usually takes one life at a time.

At least 180 people have been killed in St. Louis so far this year — the most in almost two decades. And most of those homicides involved a gun. 

That's led to a growing cry from community members, non profits, law enforcement and public officials who say it's time to re-think the approach to tackling gun violence.

Specifically, many are advocating a public health approach.

Still, cities like St. Louis are finding out that implementing this approach is easier said than done. We explore that in this week's podcast. 

We also get a little help in this episode from Ryan Delaney, a reporter forWFYIin Indianapolis.

Delaney has started a series calledIntersections,which is tracking a new consolidated plan to lower gun violence in Indianapolis by addressing things like poverty, mental health and hunger in target neighborhoods. 

You can follow his work here.

 

Kameel Stanley co-hosted and co-produced the We Live Here podcast—covering race, class, power, and poverty in the St. Louis Region—from 2015 to 2018.
Tim Lloyd was a founding host of We Live Here from 2015 to 2018 and was the Senior Producer of On Demand and Content Partnerships until Spring of 2020.
Brent is the senior data visual specialist at St. Louis Public Radio.