Greetings from What is California? HQ, where this week we welcome Dr. Garen Wintemute, an epidemiologist and emergency room doctor with UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, as well as the director of UCD’s Violence Prevention Research Program.
If you have read or heard or viewed any news at all about gun violence or gun control in the last 20 or 30 years, then it is highly likely you have encountered Dr. Wintemute’s research. He is one of the foremost experts and researchers—not only in California, but nationally and globally—on firearm violence as a public health threat.
I first encountered Dr. Wintemute’s work when I was reporting a story about the anniversary of the 1989 Cleveland Elementary School shooting in Stockton. That was back in 2013, when, according to statistics from the CDC, America was losing around 31,000 people per year to firearm fatalities. The majority of those deaths were suicides, and of course there were homicides and accidents.
Since I last spoke to Dr. Wintemute, the numbers have exploded upward. Provisional CDC data says that more than 48,000 Americans died in 2021 as a result of firearm violence. That is well over a 50% jump in less than a decade.
In this conversation, we talk about why that number spiked in recent years, and what it means for the years ahead. Dr. Wintemute also tells us about his program’s current work examining the intersection between firearm violence and political violence—including the threat of electoral violence as soon as this year and the prospects for large-scale civil war. We also talk about how California’s gun control laws—which are the strictest state measures in the U.S.—protect us. And we discuss what they cannot do to protect us. Dr. Wintemute responds as well to critics who point to the rise in violence as evidence that perhaps California’s laws aren’t the public-health safeguard that their proponents want them to be.
And we talk plenty as well about everything else you expect to hear on What is California? Dr. Wintemute has some really fascinating observations about the outer reaches of California nature, from the ocean to the mountains way up in the tippy top of the state. And of course we hear about his favorite Californian.
Fair warning, dear listener—this is kind of a heavy topic, and our conversation takes a few turns that you might say are a little dark. It’s not all dark; there are some bright spots, silver linings, and we do lighten it up a bit in here where we can.
In any case, I hope you’ll have a listen. I sincerely believe Garen Wintemute is one of our greatest Californians, and it’s an honor to speak with him. I’m proud to share his perspectives and experience with you.
Let me know what you’re thinking, too. If you have questions or comments or thoughts about this episode or anything else on What Is California?, then please drop me a line. I always appreciate hearing from you as well.
Keep your eye on the bear! 🐻 ❤️
Episode Notes
Dr. Garen Wintemute is an emergency room doctor at UC Davis Medical Center and the director of the Violence Prevention Research Program.
We are in the midst of a huge national experiment that’s going to answer the question: What happens when you take a society that is exhausted, fearful, concerned for its future, angry at itself, polarized... and throw a bunch of guns into it? We have no alternative but to live through answering that question.
Notes and references from this episode:
UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program - home page
“Trigger Effect: The 1989 Cleveland School Shooting, 25 Years Later,” by Stu VanAirsdale, Sactown Magazine
Warner Mountains: Climbing, Hiking & Mountaineering - SummitPost
“Gun Deaths Hit an All-Time High (Again) in 2021,” by Jennifer Mascia, The Trace
“Attorney General Bonta Launches Office of Gun Violence Prevention” - Office of the Attorney General
“Survey finds alarming trend toward political violence” - Violence Prevention Research Program, UC Davis
Gary Snyder biography - Academy of American Poets
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