Stephen Hargarten
Professor of Emergency Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin (website)
email: [email protected]
Professor of Emergency Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin (website)
email: [email protected]
small arms and light weapons (SALW) | harm to civilians
Stephen Hargarten, MD, MPH, is Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, and served as Department Chair for 20 years. He is the Founding Dean for Global Health and the Founding Director of the Comprehensive Injury Center at MCW. His research interests reflect an intersection of injury and violence prevention and health policy to address the burden of this biopsychosocial disease. His work in linking data systems for understanding violent deaths informed the development of the CDC’s National Violent Death Reporting System. He is currently leading research investigations in wound ballistics studies. He is a founding member of the WHO Call to Action to Address Gun Violence. There are now 120 global organizations across 40 countries that have signed on to this call to action.
Hargarten received his MD degree (1975) from the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) and his MPH degree (1984) from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He completed a rotating internship at Gorgas Hospital in the Canal Zone, Panama. He was continuously board certified in Emergency Medicine across four decades.
Hargarten has published over 150 scientific articles, commentaries, book chapters, and abstracts. He was the founding President of the Society for the Advancement of Violence and Injury Research and has served on the Violence and Injury Prevention Mentoring Committee for the World Health Organization. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and a Hopkins Scholar.
Recent Publications
* indicates additional authors
Stephen Hargarten, MD, MPH, is Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, and served as Department Chair for 20 years. He is the Founding Dean for Global Health and the Founding Director of the Comprehensive Injury Center at MCW. His research interests reflect an intersection of injury and violence prevention and health policy to address the burden of this biopsychosocial disease. His work in linking data systems for understanding violent deaths informed the development of the CDC’s National Violent Death Reporting System. He is currently leading research investigations in wound ballistics studies. He is a founding member of the WHO Call to Action to Address Gun Violence. There are now 120 global organizations across 40 countries that have signed on to this call to action.
Hargarten received his MD degree (1975) from the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) and his MPH degree (1984) from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He completed a rotating internship at Gorgas Hospital in the Canal Zone, Panama. He was continuously board certified in Emergency Medicine across four decades.
Hargarten has published over 150 scientific articles, commentaries, book chapters, and abstracts. He was the founding President of the Society for the Advancement of Violence and Injury Research and has served on the Violence and Injury Prevention Mentoring Committee for the World Health Organization. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and a Hopkins Scholar.
Recent Publications
- "Firearms as a Market-Driven Epidemic: Potential Pathways to Reduce Preventable Firearm-Related Harm in the United States," Milbank Quarterly, June 29, 2026. *
- "A Roadmap to Effective Gun Violence Policy," Council on Foreign Relations, June 16, 2026. *
- "Experimental wound ballistic study to understand biomechanical differences in gunshot wounds from various bullets and firearms: implications for clinical care and forensic analysis," Forensic Science, Medicine and Pathology, November 11, 2025. *
* indicates additional authors