More than 500 moms, many of them survivors of gun violence gathered in downtown St. Louis for “Gun Sense University” on August 3rd thru August 6th a yearly event sponsored by Moms Demand Action.
Since the spring of 2015, when the university launched its gun research initiative, researchers have been focusing on gun violence as a public health issue — like smoking, like seat belts, like drunk driving.
Because Congress has discouraged the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from studying gun violence, there is a lack of data available to judge its effects in neighborhoods. But the toxic stress that comes from experiencing daily shootings in places such as Seattle and St. Louis is very real.
