States take a public health approach to curb gun violence. Interview by Bridget M. Kuehn.

Public outcry over the mass shootings in Connecticut, Colorado, and otherpartsof thecountry in thepast year has reignited legislative efforts to curb firearmviolence,which results inmore than 30 000US deaths annually. In April, the US Senate failed to pass legislation that would have closed loopholes in background checks for firearm buyers. But some state legislatures, including Colorado, Connecticut, New York, California, and Maryland, are still pursuing or have passed tough new restrictions on firearms. Garen Wintemute, MD, MPH, director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis, and an emergency department physician, discussed with JAMA the public health approach that many of these legislative efforts are taking and how they may affect firearm violence. Wintemute is a nationally recognized expert on firearm violence whose work has exposed how loopholes in background check laws can facilitate the purchase of weapons by prohibited individuals at gun shows and elsewhere (Cole TB. JAMA. 2008; 300[6]:640-641).