Targeting a growing epidemic
Houston trauma surgeon to study gun violence as if it’s a disease
For 200 days, Dr. Bindi J. Naik-Mathuria thought her patient, Sir Romeo Milam, might die. Sir Romeo was 5 years old when he was struck by a stray bullet from a gunfight outside his Sunnyside apartment while watching television with his mother and grandmother in 2018. NaikMathuria, trauma director at Texas Children’s Hospital, said he had a spinal cord injury caused by the bullet entering his body at a dangerous angle.
Movies and television show bullet holes as just that — a hole, but that entry point is just the tip of the iceberg, said Naik-Mathuria, a former member of the Mayor’s Commission on Gun Violence.
“With bullets, there is a ‘blast effect.’ One bullet can affect multiple organs and vessels,” she said. “We don’t hear about the ones that don’t die — they’re often paralyzed or have lifelong pain, need an ostomy or have disabilities.”
For the first time in nearly 25 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is funding gun violence research. Naik-Mathuria and 17 other researchers and doctors received grants for two- and three-year long research projects.
Naik-Mathuria’s project, “Understanding the Epidemiology
“All the statistics for firearm violence are related to deaths, but there are three times more people that are shot who don’t die.”
Dr. Bindi Naik-Mathuria, trauma director at Texas Children’s Hospital
of Firearm Injuries in a Large Urban County: A Guide for Targeted Intervention Efforts,” will examine gun violence as if it’s a disease. She was granted $342,190 for the two-year project, which will integrate data from trauma centers, the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences and the Houston Police Department to study risk factors at the individual and neighborhood levels.
“If we understand why it’s happening, where and who it’s happening to, we can understand ways to treat or fix it like it’s a disease,” Naik-Mathuria said. “All the statistics for firearm violence are related to deaths, but there are three times more people that are shot who don’t die.”
Earlier this month, the Biden administration released six initial actions to help curb gun violence while it waits for Congress to vote on two bills to close loopholes in the background check system.
The initial actions include evidence-based community violence interventions, including a $5 billion investment over eight years to support them. According to the administration, a key part of community violence intervention must be connecting individuals with job training and jobs.
Howard Henderson, director of Texas Southern University’s Center for Justice Research, called the White House’s initial actions a good attempt to delve into why gun violence continues to affect minority communities more than white communities. The Center for Justice Research has recently launched a project examining the motivations behind why young Black men pick up guns.
“We needed someone to do that from that level, and Biden took the opportunity to do that,” Henderson said. “Hopefully, the politics won’t take over, as it oftentimes does, and they can deal with this public health issue in a nonpartisan way. It doesn’t make any sense for us to live in one of the freest democracies in the world to have gun violence so rampant in certain communities.”
Determinants of gun violence
Gun violence is a public health problem that will benefit from a public health approach and solution, Naik-Mathuria said.
Still in the early stages, the project will break down data from HPD and Harris County by shooting type, neighborhood, race, ethnicity and age, along with other factors.
“If we know more specifics, we will be able to target these populations with interventions,” she said.
Sir Romeo’s immediate family no longer lives in the Sunnyside apartment complex where he was shot. His mother, Shacherra Milam, said she’s glad to be away from the area.
“When you just have the money to stay in certain areas, that’s all you can afford,” Milam said. “The gate’s broken, and we don’t know what they’re doing about security. There was a shootout in front of it not long ago.”
Nearly two years, and several surgeries later, now-7-year-old Sir Romeo walks with a limp but has made an incredible recovery, Naik-Mathuria said. Some days, he is the reason she goes to work.
Her research will work to identify risk factors for each kind of shooting: homicide, intentional, accidental, suicide and suicide attempts. Data from Houston’s highest-level trauma centers, morgues and police records will help Naik-Mathuria’s team create a key map of gun violence in the state’s largest county.
“Saving kids like (Sir Romeo) is why we do what we do,” NaikMathuria said. “This is not about gun control — it’s about gun safety and injury prevention. Leave the politics to the politicians; our job is saving lives and lifetimes.”
Houston as a template
Until lawmakers understand why people pick up a gun in the first place, they won’t be able to curb gun violence, said Henderson.
Texas Southern University is researching why young Black and urban youth ages 15-24 carry guns. The center announced in December that it was one of several universities to join a $1 million Thurgood Marshall College Fund grant project funded by the National Gun Violence Research Center. TSU will receive $243,000 to study Houston, which is one of four research sites.
“We recognize that we know a lot about the research in terms of who is involved in violent behavior, but we don’t know why these individuals would participate in violent behavior,” Henderson said. “We want to understand from these kids’ perspectives what made them pick up a gun. If we understand that piece, we have a better chance of building programs to prevent that from happening.”
The study will work to determine trigger points for young Black men between the ages of 15 and 24 by asking why they possess guns and their views on them. The other study sites include Coppin State University in Baltimore, Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss., and Delaware State University in Wilmington.
The two-year, two-phase project will first look at local gun-death statistics and how they relate to state and federal gun laws, Henderson said. The first phase will analyze existing data, and the second will include interviews with young men from various Houston neighborhoods.
“We’re trying to use the local analysis as our framework. With national averages (on gun statistics), it limits the ability to look at the community,” Henderson said. “If we don’t know what and why it’s happening, we won’t know how to solve the problem.”
Initial research will delve into hot spots for gun-related crime, including Sunnyside, Fifth Ward and Alief, Henderson said. He added that the project will examine a fair cross-section of the city.
Houston has already seen more than 100 homicides in 2021, a fast follow-up to last year’s 400 murders in the city. It is a 37 percent increase from the same time last year, according to preliminary statistics from the Houston Police Department.
Naik-Mathuria’s research will look back at three years of data. She noted Harris County’s large size and diverse population make it a good template to examine both urban and suburban gun violence.
“The next step is what to do with the data you have,” she said. “There will be interviews, working with leadership in neighborhoods to improve those areas and create more access to mental health assistance. We must target things based on what we find.”