gun violence

Wear Orange for National Gun Violence Awareness Day

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“Wear Orange is June 5th! The 6th National Gun Violence Awareness Day is when we honor the people shot and killed or wounded by gun violence, and survivors of gun violence. We honor them and renew our commitment to ending gun violence in America by taking action and taking part in Wear Orange. And for the … Read more

House Judiciary Committee advances gun control for first time in decades

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Today is the first anniversary of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. In the year after Parkland, there was nearly one mass shooting a day. “Since Parkland, there have been nearly 350 mass shootings in the US — nearly one a day.”

“The shooting inspired a new national movement for gun control, the #NeverAgain movement, culminating in the March for Our Lives in Washington, DC, and sister marches across the country last March.”

The student-led movement has had some successes, but there has also been some backsliding. Here is every new gun law in the U.S. since the Parkland shooting:

Legislatures around the country have passed dozens of bills to address gun violence in the year since the 17 people died in a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

In all, 123 new laws were enacted in the 364 days since the Parkland tragedy, according to data collected by the Associated Press. Below is a list of them all, organized by state.

Many of the new laws already in effect added restrictions on owning a firearm. For example, 18 of these laws disqualified more people from owning guns, 11 are so-called “red flag laws” that allow people to petition a court to take away firearms from someone who poses a danger to themselves or others, and nine states passed new prohibitions on bump stocks, a firearm add on that allows a semiautomatic weapon to fire at a rate comparable to a machine.

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Balanced Public Health Policy Should Be Legislature’s Goal (video)

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The Arizona House Health Committee passed the Arizona Opioid Epidemic Act in January 2018.

This is the transcript of my opening remarks at the Arizona Public Health Association Conference on Oct. 3, 2018. A video of the speech is below.

It is an honor for me to address the Arizona Public Health Association, since I have a Masters in Public Health from the University of Arizona. I worked in health communication, medicine, public health and behavioral research for many years before deciding to run for the Arizona House in 2015.

In fact, it was my background in public health that prompted me to run for office. Many times since I moved to Arizona in 1981, I have found myself shouting at the radio or the TV or the newspaper or a social post about bad policy decisions made by the Arizona Legislature. Anybody else have that experience?

In the public health arena, the Legislature far too often makes short-term decisions to save a buck or make an ideological point, but in the long-term, these decisions cost money and lives. Do you remember Governor Jan Brewer’s Death Panels? Brewer knocked more than 250,000 adults off of Medicaid—including people on transplant waiting lists. That decision made national news as transplant patients began dying.

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