Experts: Gun violence prevention requires public health approach
Preventing gun violence will require a scientific public health approach and recognition of the limits of predicting individual cases of violence, according to experts slated to speak at the American Psychological Association’s 122nd Annual Convention.
The experts will discuss how gun violence disproportionately affects different populations and results in consequences such as suicide, homicide and unintentional shootings. They will also address how mental illness is — and is not — related to gun violence. The session, scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 7, will feature members of a panel that produced APA’s 2013 report, Gun Violence: Prediction, Prevention, and Policy, and were on an APA task force appointed to develop a policy statement, which was adopted in February by APA’s governing Council of Representatives.