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Dr. Wintemute is a Professor of Emergency Medicine and Director of the Violence Prevention Research Program. His nomination letter gives a compelling account of his scholarly public service: “Recognized as one of the nation’s foremost scholars addressing violence as a public health problem, he has weathered death threats, complaints about his scientific integrity and demands for dismissal from his job. A gun company president once advised him to keep his life insurance premiums paid up. He has published numerous scientific articles on gun violence, testified on the subject before Congress, the California Legislature and various local governments, and provided comments to Frontline, CNN, the Washington Post and other media outlets. He has served as a consultant for the World Health Organization, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American Red Cross, and he has received many awards from professional and academic societies for his longstanding commitment to improve public health and safety. In 1997 Time magazine named him one of 15 international “heroes of medicine”. With nearly 30,000 deaths a year, gun violence ranks among the top-10 killers of Americans. But in the early 1980’s , when Dr. Wintemute first set his sights on gun violence, only four or five researchers nationwide were looking at the problem as a public health issue. Since then, he has conducted groundbreaking research – and generated hard scientific data – to address the nature of gun violence, increase awareness of prevention, and focus efforts on improving public health policies. As a result of his research, state and federal legislators – as well as the victims of gun-related crimes, grassroots organizations and the general public – have advocated for and implemented more targeted violence-prevention and gun-control policies. Perhaps of greatest importance is Dr. Wintemute’s longstanding commitment of service to federal, state and local policymakers and law enforcement agencies. He collaborates regularly with staff at the California Department of Justice and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.” His vigorous and unrelenting leadership in the fight to end gun violence is an outstanding example of scholarly public service.
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