Although I have not practiced neurosurgery for many years, I have kept abreast of health care policy and advances in medicine. Since my retirement I founded and edited a medical journal, served on the editorial board of another international surgical neurology peer-reviewed journal, and at the request of President George W. Bush I served in the Injury Research Grant Review Committee of the CDC in Atlanta. I trained at the premier Georgia trauma center, Grady Memorial Hospital, under the auspices of Emory University, and I have published on this subject.

In a new book, Gun Violence: The Real Costs (Oxford University Press, 2000), to be released next month, economists Philip J. Cook of Duke University and Jens Ludwig of Georgetown University have upgraded the health costs of gun violence from the previously erroneous figure of $20 billion to $100 billion.