In Oakland, Citizens Learn to Treat Gunshot Wounds

The shooting in Newtown got a lot of pro-gun activists like the NRA talking about preventing gun deaths by empowering civilians to carry weapons in public places such as schools.

But in Oakland, California, where community members have been watching the gun violence epidemic claiming lives for many long years, a group of local activists has banded together for a different kind of empowerment. Instead of meeting guns with more guns, the People’s Community Medics are training citizens in basic first aid techniques to treat gunshot wound victims. Their effort were recently documented in the East Bay Express.