With this essay, Jonathan Metzl opens a new Items series exploring social science research pathways into understanding American gun violence, gun culture, and its discontents. The series provides a sampling of innovative approaches to the study of gun-related issues in the United States. Here Metzl provides background on the history and limits of public health research approaches to gun violence, and highlights how social science research can and has started asking new questions about guns in the United States.
Jonathan Metzl
Jonathan Metzl is a professor and the director of the Center for Medicine, Health, and Society at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. He is also research director of the Safe Tennessee Project, a grassroots organization committed to addressing gun violence in the state. Metzl’s most recent book is Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America’s Heartland (New York: Basic Books, 2019).