Hirsh to speak at public gun policy forum

January 10, 2013

Michael Hirsh, MD, professor of surgery and pediatrics (at right), will be one of the featured speakers at a public forum about gun policy co-sponsored by Citizens for Sensible Gun Policy and Lincoln-Sudbury Adult Education. The forum will take place on Wednesday, Jan. 16, at 7 p.m. in the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School auditorium.

The forum “Gun violence in America: How can we effect meaningful change?” will be moderated by Middlesex County sheriff Peter Koutoujian, and will also feature Harvard health policy professor David Hemenway, PhD, a national expert on gun violence and author of Private Guns, Public Health, and Laura Hyer, executive director of Stop Hand Gun Violence, a national non-profit committed to the prevention of gun violence.

Since 2001, Dr. Hirsh, who is acting commissioner of public health in Worcester and a pediatric trauma surgeon at UMass Memorial Medical Center, has led an annual gun buyback program in partnership with the Worcester Police Department and the Worcester Division of Public Health. Called “Goods for Guns” and modeled on a program that Hirsh launched in Pittsburg, the program has collected more than 1,200 guns and weapons since its founding 11 years ago.