Description
This webinar was recorded on February 20, 2024. There are no CEUs available for recorded webinars.
Alcohol use and gun violence are leading causes of preventable injury and death in the United States. These issues are most deadly when they intersect with one another. This webinar will discuss research and policy recommendations from the report “Alcohol Misuse and Gun Violence: An Evidence-Based Approach,” pointing to alcohol misuse as a risk factor for all forms of gun violence, including homicides and suicides, confirming the urgent need to adopt evidence-based policies that address this troubling link.
Joshua Horwitz, J.D. is the Dana Feitler Professor of the Practice in Gun Violence Prevention and Advocacy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Co-Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. He works to reduce gun violence by utilizing public health research and health equity analysis to build advocacy campaigns that meet critical opportunities in the policy development process. With over 30 years of experience, Professor Horwitz is a key leader in firearm policy development and education. Along with a small group of colleagues, Professor Horwitz developed the Extreme Risk Protection Order Policy, which is now law in 21 states and the District of Columbia. As a result, Josh is now the principal investigator of the National ERPO Resource Center at Johns Hopkins, a Department of Justice-funded training and technical assistance hub that provides support to states implementing extreme risk protection orders. Professor Horwitz has also developed many policy translation reports, including the newly released Alcohol Misuse and Gun Violence: An Evidence-Based Approach for State Policy and the original report from the Consortium for Risk-Based Firearm Policy identifying ERPO as a needed policy tool titled, Guns, Public Health, and Mental Illness: An Evidence-Based Approach. He has also testified before numerous state legislatures and the U.S. Congress. Professor Horwitz is the co-author of Guns, Democracy and the Insurrectionist Idea, published by the University of Michigan Press in 2009. He received his B.A. from the University of Michigan in 1985 and his J.D. from The George Washington University in 1988.
Silvia Villarreal is the Director of Research Translation at the Center for Gun Violence Solutions. Her goal is to bridge the gap between research and policy by translating research into evidence-based materials for different audiences. Silvia is also the Managing Director for the Consortium for Risk-Based Firearm Policy where she coordinates a group of experts to craft gun violence policy solutions from a public health perspective. She has led several reports on firearm policy, such as the “Racial Equity Impact Assessment Framework for Gun Violence Prevention” and “Alcohol Misuse and Gun Violence: an Evidence-Based Approach for State Policy”.
Silvia began her career doing research and evaluation for community-based violence prevention programs in vulnerable communities in Mexico. Her research around gun trafficking, gun violence in Mexico, and the impact of US gun policies abroad has been published in different academic journals and news outlets. She has a bachelor’s degree in international relations and a master’s degree in public policy from Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey.