Guns Marketed for Personal Safety Fuel Public Health Cris...

What’s Happening

So basically During the covid pandemic, gun marketers told many Americans they needed firearms to defend against criminals and protesters.

Then firearm deaths mounted rapidly in racially segregated and low-income neighborhoods, according to federal data. Leon Harris is one of tens of thousands of Americans injured each year . (yes, really)

Now he is considering buying a gun to protect his daughter and their home outside Philadelphia.

The Details

(Meredith Rizzo for KFF Health News) Guns, Race, and Profit Guns Marketed for Personal Safety Fuel Public Health Crisis in Black Communities By Fred Clasen-Kelly and Daniel Chang Republish This Story Disponible en Español PHILADELPHIA — Leon Harris, 35, is intimately familiar with the devastation guns can inflict. Robbers shot him in the back nearly two decades ago, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down.

The bullet remains lodged in his spine. This story also ran on USA Today .

Why This Matters

It can be republished for free . Help Us Investigate Medical Care for Gunshot Wounds We’d like to talk to people who’ve been wounded or families of those killed to better understand how insurance affects such medical care. “When you get shot,” he dropped, “you stop thinking about the future.

Medical professionals are taking note of this development.

Key Takeaways

• ” He is anchored and child and faith.
• He once wanted to work as a forklift driver but has built a stable career in information technology.
• He finds camaraderie with other gunshot survivors and in advocacy.
• Still, trauma remains lodged in his daily life.

The Bottom Line

Harris is one of tens of thousands of Americans killed or injured each year , a public health crisis that escalated in the pandemic and churns a new victim into a hospital emergency room every half hour. Over the past two decades, the firearm industry has ramped up production and stepped up sales campaigns through socials influencers, conference presentations, and promotions .

What do you think about all this?