News Release

Update: Firearm violence & population-based issues

April 17, 2007, University of Michigan School of Public Health release

ANN ARBOR– The University of Michigan School of Public Health joins other institutions nationwide in expressing support and condolences to the colleagues and families of the victims of the tragic April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech.

"This tragedy and others like it underscore the need to recognize and address the public health consequences of firearm violence," stated an April 16, 2007, executive release from the American Public Health Association.

Sandro Galea, a University of Michigan expert in post-traumatic stress, told the Detroit Free Press on April 17, 2007, that reducing the number of available guns is a first step to avoiding mass violence: "I don't think it's a mystery that there is a link between gun availability and fatalities associated with these guns. It's a much larger societal question."

UM SPH Multimedia Links on Youth and Violence

Listen to UM SPH's Marc Zimmerman explain population-based factors that can lead youth to lash out in violent ways: NPR, Jan. 18, 2007.

Watch Michael Rich of the Center on Media and Child Health analyze Columbine-based video games and violent influences on youth:
http://ummedia12.rs.itd.umich.edu/sph/phsad/MichaelRich.wmv
(formatted in Windows Media and preceded by PHSAD conference opening remarks).

UM SPH Experts by Topic: Violence

Sandro Galea, M.D., Dr.P.H.
Associate professor, Epidemiology, co-director of Disaster Research Education and Mentoring Center
Phone: 734-647-9741 E-mail: sgalea@umich.edu

Research interests include the the social and economic determinants of population health, and epidemiology of mental health and substance misuse, and the consequences of disasters and mass trauma. MORE

Marc A. Zimmerman, Ph.D.
Professor and chair, Health Behavior and Health Education
Phone: (734) 647-0224 E-mail: marcz@umich.edu
Faculty Profile

Expert on adolescent health and resiliency, community-level health promotion, and community psychology. MORE

Relevant Issues of Findings Magazine

Fall/Winter 2006 Volume 22 Number 1	Research Highlights-- Evolutionary Forces Explain Why Women Live Longer Than Men

Spring/Summer 2006 Volume 21 Number 2	Aftermath: The Psychological Toll of Terror-- Epidemiologist Sandro Galea is finding that for countless of victims of disaster, it's not the event itself that wounds, but what comes later.

Fall/Winter 2005 Volume 21 Number 1	Future Findings-- Empowering Youth to End Youth Violence Research Update-- Exposure to Gun Violence Doubles Odds that Teens Will Perpetrate Violence.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume 20 Number 2	When Fathers and Sons Spend Time Together: They grow rich "with love, caring, understanding, quality time, and sharing," says one graduate of a novel project that has changed the lives of nearly 200 families in Flint, Michigan. (PDF)

Contact: Terri Mellow, director of communications
Phone: (734) 764-8094
E-mail: twm@umich.edu