How Cities Can Combat Illegal Guns and Gun Violence

Though gun violence peaked in American cities in the early 1990s, firearms are still used in more than 30 homicides per day in the U.S.One major challenge is how to stanch the flow of guns to criminals. Researchers from the School's Center for Gun Policy and Research have recently zeroed in on illegal sales by licensed dealers (the dominant means of diverting guns into illegal markets). These sales include unrecorded, "off the books" transactions and "straw purchases" in which a person unable to pass a federal background check relies on another individual for the purchase.Daniel Webster, MPH, ScD '91, Center co-director, wants to increase the accountability of gun dealers. This report outlines how to reduce illegal gun trafficking, reduce illegal gun carrying, and use technology to prevent gun violence

Updated Evidence and Policy Developments on Reducing Gun Violence in America

This digital update to Reducing Gun Violence in America presents new evidence and developments in the effort to address the staggering toll of gun violence in the United States.In 2013—in the wake of the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School—Johns Hopkins University Press published Reducing Gun Violence in America, a collection of essays written by the world’s leading experts on gun violence. Updated Evidence and Policy Developments on Reducing Gun Violence in America follows up on the state of American gun violence by analyzing new data, research, and policy developments one year after Sandy Hook. Over the course of ten substantive chapter addendums, contributors bring readers up-to-date on such varied topics as mental illness, domestic violence, background checks, illegal gun sales, and personalized guns. They describe the recent policy measures that have been enacted and suggest additional approaches that may help stem the violence. An essential companion to Reducing Gun Violence in America, the reliable, empirical research and legal analysis in this e-book will help lawmakers, opinion leaders, and concerned citizens identify policy changes to address gun violence, which takes an average of more than 80 lives every day in the United States

Gambling with the Health of Others

The health and wellbeing of the public is, in part, a function of the behavior of individuals. When one individual’s behavior places another at a foreseeable and easily preventable risk of illness or injury, tort liability can play a valuable role in discouraging that conduct. This is true in the context of childhood immunization

Gambling with the Health of Others

The health and wellbeing of the public is, in part, a function of the behavior of individuals. When one individual’s behavior places another at a foreseeable and easily preventable risk of illness or injury, tort liability can play a valuable role in discouraging that conduct. This is true in the context of childhood immunization

Lethal Injections: The Law, Science, and Politics of Syringe Access for Injection Drug Users

ENSURING THAT INJECTION drug users who cannot or will not stop injecting have access to sterile syringes is an important part of a comprehensive approach to reducing the transmission of viral and bacterial infections associated with injection drug use. I Seen purely in terms of public health science and prevention practice, ensuring syringe access for injection drug users is clearly an appropriate strategy: both evaluation research and experience in the field show that adequate syringe access produces positive health effects without negative social side effects

Concealed Carry of Firearms: Facts vs. Fiction

arrying a concealed handgun in public has the potential to enable would-be victims of violent crime to thwart attempted acts of violence, but also poses potential threats to public safety. Because of these potential threats, states have historically regulated the carrying of concealed firearms. These regulations have included requiring a permit to carry a concealed weapon and basing the issuance of these permits on whether applicants met training, safety, and even personal character requirements. Additionally, states have limited the places in which the permit holder could carry a concealed firearm

A Specific Primed Immune Response in Drosophila Is Dependent on Phagocytes

Drosophila melanogaster, like other invertebrates, relies solely on its innate immune response to fight invading microbes; by definition, innate immunity lacks adaptive characteristics. However, we show here that priming Drosophila with a sublethal dose of Streptococcus pneumoniae protects against an otherwise-lethal second challenge of S. pneumoniae. This protective effect exhibits coarse specificity for S. pneumoniae and persists for the life of the fly. Although not all microbial challenges induced this specific primed response, we find that a similar specific protection can be elicited by Beauveria bassiana, a natural fly pathogen. To characterize this primed response, we focused on S. pneumoniae–induced protection. The mechanism underlying this protective effect requires phagocytes and the Toll pathway. However, activation of the Toll pathway is not sufficient for priming-induced protection. This work contradicts the paradigm that insect immune responses cannot adapt and will promote the search for similar responses overlooked in organisms with an adaptive immune response