ABA Midyear Meeting 2016: Gun Violence as a Public Health Issue

In this Special Report, Legal Talk Network producer Laurence Colletti sits down with President of the American College of Physicians Dr. Wayne Riley, Chair of the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Gun Violence David Clark, and Los Angeles City Council member Paul Krekorian to discuss firearm violence in the United States. The conversation opens with David Clark providing statistics on deaths, suicides, non-fatal injuries, and homicides that involve firearms. The discussion then shifts to the lack of research being done on gun violence and the measures that could be taken to reduce the rate of gun deaths. The interview concludes with a group discussion of gun magazine size and current firearm legislation.

Dr. Wayne J. Riley was first influenced by his father, Dr. Emile Edward Riley, who was a surgeon, to pursue a career in medicine. Before deciding to follow in his father’s footsteps as a physician, he spent a few years working for the mayor’s office in his hometown of New Orleans where he pursued and received a master’s degree in public health from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Dr. Riley received his Doctor of Medicine from Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. In 2007, Dr. Riley became president of Meharry Medical College, the nation’s largest predominately African American academic health science center and also his father’s alma mater.

David Clark is a retired partner at the law firm of  Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP. He is the state delegate for Mississippi in the ABA House of Delegates, a past chair of the Mississippi Bar’s Litigation Section, and a member of the American Law Institute. He has taught or written on antitrust law, federal courts, discovery, mediation, and tort reform.

Paul Krekorian serves on the Los Angeles City Council as chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee. He is also chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Job Creation, the vice chair of the Entertainment and Facilities Committee, and sits on the Economic Development Committee, Trade, Commerce and Technology Committee, Executive Employee Relations Committee and the Board of Referred Powers. Paul earned his B.A. in political science from the University of Southern California and a law degree from UC Berkeley School of Law.