Failing to understand the problem(s)...

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

...won't really lead to an answer.

"America's Gun Violence Epidemic"
"End the Gun Epidemic in America"
"AMERICA’S GUN VIOLENCE EPIDEMIC"
"Congress Must Act Now to Stop America’s Gun Violence Epidemic"

> epidemic:
a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time.

Describing gun violence as an epidemic is a literary device meant to grab the attention of the readership.

A doctor won't be using traditional medical or surgical means to solve the problem. Now and then a TV series or movie or news broadcast may establish certain facts or relationships for the general public but there are complex issues behind violence and suicide. Asking epidemiologists or public health professionals for a "cure" is heading down the wrong road. Violence and crime are studied by criminologists. Suicide experts are usually psychiatrists and psychologists.

But since we're kind of attached to the idea of playing follow the leader like the rats in that Pied Piper story, maybe we can start thinking of lies by politicians as an epidemic.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

1. I think it's crass fearmongering. Diseases have every appearance of striking invisibly and randomly.

Against such a threat people want someone to swoop in with a cure to save everyone.

Killing with a gun, however, is an act of human agency. Even the deaths attributed to negligence require a series of decisions that led to the consequence. In other words nobody wants to confront the idea that what we're dealing with is not a disease but a symptom of human free will. Can we cure free will? Should we even try?

The public won't answer in the way preferred by those who resent free will because it interferes with their personal ambitions so they have to use different imagery.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

2. "Can we cure free will?" Well, we can sure try.

"Should we even try?" Since this country was founded on ideals completely counter to that type of activity, I say sure, give it a shot.

MSM and the anti-gun public health folks are two examples of 'when all you have is a Hemenway, everything starts to look like a noro' or something like that.

[Eleanors38]

3. Good post. Prohibitionist misuse of metaphor is common, and spreads the gamut

of the objects of prohibition. While there are health consequences attendant to the use of certain objects, drugs, foods, beverags, and behaviors, few of these cause "epidemics," and banning them rarely address those consequences. Sound and believeable education does more to reduce useage of a potentially hazardous material or stop a dangerous behavior.