How Gun Violence Literally Infects Communities
A new study provides the first evidence that gun violence spreads exactly like a blood-borne pathogen.
Gun violence is scorching the United States, and the wound is increasingly visible. More than 11,000 Americans are killed in assaults involving guns annually, and at least 50,000 more are injured. Among people between the ages of 15 and 24, nine of every 100,000 lives end due to a gun homicide. About 65 of every 100,000 people in this age group are injured by gun assaults every year.
In the mid-1980s, public health experts began referring to youth violence as an epidemic because it was occurring in higher than expected numbers. Some experts took that notion further, insisting that youth violence isn’t just like a disease—rather, it a disease, an infectious
