An Expert’s View On Why We Die From Gun Violence

By Robert J. Hansen | OBSERVER Staff Writer Garen Wintemute, an emergency room doctor at UC Davis Medical Center, sees firsthand the damage gun violence inflicts upon Sacramento. In a one-week period earlier this month, four incidents resulted in at least three people dying and one in critical condition after being shot, according to Sacramento police. Wintemute, 72, is a renowned expert on the crisis of gun violence and a pioneer in the field of injury epidemiology and prevention of firearm violence. In more than 40 years conducting research on gun violence and working on its prevention, he has produced an informative body of research on firearm violence that directly improves the health and safety of Americans. UC Davis gun violence expert Dr. Garen Wintemute has dedicated his life’s work to reducing gun violence. Louis Bryant III, OBSERVER In the early 1980s, Wintemute went to Cambodia, saw the homicide rate there, and told himself he needed to do something about violence in the United States. Wintemute is the first doctor people see when they enter the emergency room at UCD Med Center. Working triage, he attends to as many as 70 patients in an eight-hour shift. “We see all the...