Guns, violence and political extremism are on the rise. And America risks disaster — sooner than later.
That’s the view of a longtime University of California firearms researcher whose hard-hitting report was published last week in the journal Injury Epidemiology.
“Upward trends in firearm purchasing, violence and political extremism are converging to put the USA at risk for disaster in the months ahead,” Garen Wintemute warned in introducing the report. “We have no time to waste if we are to prevent the loss of thousands of lives and emerge with our democracy intact.”
Those are strong and alarming words, particularly from an academic researcher.
Wintemute, 69, is director of the California Firearms Violence Research Center at UC Davis. He has been studying gun violence for nearly 40 years, and his research has provided the impetus for several major gun control bills in the state Legislature.
He’s also an emergency room physician whose obsession with firearms violence grew from his constant treatment of gunshot wounds.
But does that also make him a sociologist?
