Ali Rowhani-Rahbar Addresses Gun Violence and Policy in Editorial
Posted: 10/31/2017 (Conference and CSDE in the News)
Affiliate Ali Rowhani-Rahbar, Associate Professor of Epidemiology, co-authored an accompanying editorial to a recent UC Berkeley study that relates Nevada gun shows to gun violence in California. The study found that firearm-related injuries and deaths increase in California within two weeks of a gun show in Nevada, in regions within driving distance of the show. Interestingly, the same effect does not occur following California gun shows. These outcomes may be attributable to differences in California and Nevada’s respective gun laws; while the former has more stringent regulations and requires background checks at gun shows, the latter does not. In the editorial, Rowhani-Rahbar and UW Professor of Pediatrics Frederick Rivara address the implications of the study for federal policy. “The state-by-state nature of [laws regulating access to guns], due to the lack of federal legislation, results in barriers to gun access that can be easily breached by a car trip. It does not reduce the importance of the laws but does reduce their impact,” they write. The editorial was referenced last week in Huffington Post and Los Angeles Times articles, and is available below.