An op-ed on gun violence written collectively by Yale’s new “Guns in the United States” course has been published in the Hartford Courant. The course was led by Professor Andrew Papachristos from our department and Professor Tracey Meares from the Law School, and authors included, among others, graduate students William McMillan, Tony Cheng, and Michael Sierra-Arevalo, and undergraduate major Maria Seravalli. In the op-ed, the group argues that “useful and effective solutions to gun fatality and mortality require recognizing the problem as a public health problem, and not just as a crime” and that “we should focus on gun policies that affect average Americans”. They suggest two interventions with the potential to influence gun violence and safety: first, they advocate “basic firearm safety education for children”; second, since “targeted and specific policing strategies can dramatically reduce gun crime,” they argue that “reductions in gun homicide might best result from directing enforcement and services toward those at highest risk of killing or being killed, rather than deploying non-targeted blunderbuss strategies such as mass stop and frisk.” Congratulations, everyone!