Stephen Teret talks guns as public health threat at Rethinking Regulation event

On Wednesday, April 16, the Rethinking Regulation program at KIE and the Sanford School of Public Policy hosted Stephen Teret for a public talk titled “Regulating Safer Guns?” Teret is a professor of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Law and the Public’s Health.

Teret pointed out recent research that gun fatalities are soon to overcome auto accidents as the main cause of death in the United States. While the auto industry has spent the past two decades introducing major safety innovations to auto manufacturing, there has been no movement by major gun manufacturers to implement designs to significantly decrease accidental gun deaths. Teret talked about “personal guns,” hand-held weapons that would employ smart technology to help ensure that only the registered owner could use the weapon. He also discussed various safety mechanisms that would make it harder for children to accidentally discharge firearms. Regarding regulatory efforts, Teret mentioned the continued need for multi-pronged efforts that include legislation as well as litigation, to make arms manufacturers accountable just as manufacturers in other industries are.