Targeting end to firearm carnage
· Citizen
Having a father who was saving lives as a doctor and a mother who was protecting the lives of defenceless people as a lawyer influenced an international social justice activist to be among those who recently launched a movement aimed at quelling gun violence incidents internationally.
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“I saw early on how violence and injustice affect real people,” said Dean Peacock, a founding member of the Global Coalition for the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Action on Gun Violence, a network of more than 100 public health organisations, researchers, survivor advocates and civil society partners from nearly 50 countries around the world.
Peacock is a public health advocate and researcher who was born and grew up in Cape Town and spent some time working abroad.
“I have been involved in social justicework since 1985. I started early in life towork with homeless and runaway children in Nicaragua, Central America, andin the United States.
“I saw how violence against mothers often pushed children into homelessness. That showed me how violence in the home can shape a child’s entire future.”
Just like his mother, fighting for therights of those who cannot defend themselves is in his blood.
He has been involved in several civil society groups, such as Sonke GenderJustice, and previously founded the Men Overcoming Violence Youth Programme in San Francisco, where he was studying and living.
“I am also affiliated with the School of Public Health at the University of CapeTown and the Gender Centre at the Graduate Institute in Geneva.
“My work sits at the intersection of public health, gender equality and global health governance. For more than three decades, my focus has been on prevention – addressing the root causes of violence, not only responding after harm happens.”
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Launching a global coalition on gun violence
Peacock said he loves his newly launched anti-gun violence campaign because he works with a team that includes deeply committed volunteer secretariats with decades of experience in public health, gender justice, violence prevention, research, and advocacy.
The team comprises Steve Hargarten, a retired emergency medicine doctor and a leading gun violence researcher in the US, Mbuyiselo Botha, a gender equalityand disability rights advocate and himself a survivor o f gun violence, Pierrette Kengela, a former emergency and trauma nurse who attended to gun injuries in the Democratic Republic of Congo and is now a public health leader across Africa, and Keira Seidenberg, a graduate student atthe School of Public Health at UCT.
“Our goal is simple: to make sure gun violence is treated for what it is – a preventable public health crisis. We are calling onthe World Health Organisation to give gunviolence the same attention it gives to other major health risks like tobacco, roaddeaths and infectious diseases.”
Our recent research found two worrying things. First, in more than 3 200 global health resolutions adopted since 1948, not one clearly mentions firearms.
“Second, though the WHO spoke openly about gun violence as a health issue inthe early 2000s, that focus has faded overthe last decade.
“Guns are now mostly missing from WHO’s key plans on violence againstwomen and children, suicide prevention, and even work on harmful industries.
“In many places, gun violence remainsone of the main causes of death for young men and a major factor in the killing ofwomen, but the global health responsehas become quieter.
“We believe that needs to change. We started the coalition because the gap was too obvious to ignore.
“Every year, more than 250 000 peoplearound the world die from gun violence, yet global health leaders are not treatingit with the urgency it deserves, he said. He said that in the past, the WHO clearly recognised gun violence as a health problem, but over time, that focus weakened.
“Public health has tools that work. We have reduced tobacco use. We have improved road safety. We have tackled epidemics.
“There is no reason gun violence cannot also be addressed with strong public health leadership.”
Four practical priorities for change
He added that their work was focusingon four practical areas, which are:
First, we want WHO to fully integrate gun violence into all of its violence and suicide prevention work. Gun violence should not be treated as a side issue. They are central to many forms of harm.
Second, we want stronger guidancefor the full range of health workers whorespond to gun violence.
Third, we want the WHO to encourage all member states to ensure that health workers are safe and receive the support they need. In high-violence settings, health workers carry a heavy emotional and physical burden.
Fourth, we believe the WHO should provide guidance to countries on how to regulate the marketing and normalisation of guns in online spaces, especially where they are targeted at young people.
“When WHO takes an issue seriously, governments listen. “Research shows that when access to firearms increases, the risk of harm increases. When strong, evidence-based policies are in place, deaths fall.”
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Hope as a practice
During his leisure time, he enjoys reading, cycling around the Cape Peninsula, swimming in the Western Cape’s rock pools and rivers, and hiking on Table Mountain.
His motto is that change happens when people believe it is possible.”One of my favourite writers, Rebecca Solnit, says hope is not just a feeling – it is a commitment.
“A commitment to keep looking for possibilities and to remember that we make the future in the present. Hope is something we practice together.”
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