Guns, Communities, and Civic Life

Guns, Communities, and Civic Life
February 13-14, 2018

Whose Streets?

Tuesday
February 13, 2018
7pm

Screening of the documentary

7pm at the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center

After the screening of “Whose Streets,” audience members will have the opportunity to engage with a panel of interested community members who have expertise on issues of race, policing, and guns. The panelists include: Lt. LeShuan Oliver from the Vanderbilt University police who will provide his commentary and answer questions about the VUPDs method of addressing police surveillance of people of color; Jonathan Metzl, MD/PhD (Director of MHS) whose current research addresses questions around guns and mental health in the community and in hospitals; and a Vanderbilt undergraduate student with an interest in police surveillance of people of color as a public health issue.

Gun Violence Prevention: A Community Conversation

Wednesday
February 14, 2018
12-1:30pm

Light Hall Room 208
Vanderbilt Medical School

Firearms have become increasingly prevalent in daily life over the past decade, as states like Tennessee loosen regulations governing most aspects of gun sales, purchases, and public carry privileges.  This expansion raises a number of questions that an expert panel of academics, politicians, and activists will address:

• How can we balance gun rights with public safety?
• What is the responsibility of an institution such as Vanderbilt to address gun violence prevention?
• What are the current states of firearm legislation, research, and activism?
• Are we hopelessly polarized as a state and a nation? What might political compromise even look like?

Brief presentations followed by respectful public conversation. Open to one and all.

Sponsored by the Vanderbilt Center for Medicine, Health, and Society. Co-sponsored by the Program in American Studies and Deans’ Offices of Arts and Science and Medicine.