Children and young adults have been the victims of a recent series of shootings across the country — including at a Nashville elementary school, a group of cheerleaders on their way home from practice and an older brother trying to pick up his siblings from their friend’s house.
More News
Victims like these come through Dr. Cornelia Griggs' operating room at Massachusetts General Hospital. It inspired her to take action on gun violence with the MGH Center for Gun Violence Prevention.
"My colleagues and I just felt that we couldn't look one more mother in the eye to tell her that her child had been lost to gun violence senselessly, unnecessarily," Griggs said on Greater Boston.
Griggs and her colleagues are centering their gun violence prevention efforts on community, research and education.
"We are coming at this from a public health standpoint," she said. "This epidemic of gun violence ... is a public health crisis in our country."
Griggs said working with the community on gun violence prevention efforts has been key, as she noted those closest to the problem are closest to the solution.
"There are definitely answers. There are definitely solutions. A lot of it lies in policy change and changing easy access to guns," she said.
Watch: 'This is a solvable problem in our lifetime': Pediatric trauma surgeon on gun violence prevention
