Gun violence galvanizes the health professions
Organizations representing a half-million physicians issue "a call to action" to help their patients survive.
With over
, many with narrow perspectives, it’s easy for the medical community to miss the big picture of what’s most important to the public’s health.
The American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Emergency Physicians, American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American College of Physicians, American College of Surgeons, and American Psychiatric Association were joined by the American Public Health Association (of which I'm a proud member) and the American Bar Association in their five-page statement in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The representatives of health organizations with more than a half-million members highlighted five areas for action to mitigate the impacts of firearms on human health:
Action to address gun violence often becomes mired in the question of whether it's guns that kill people or people who kill people. In an editorial accompanying the statement, eadlined "Reducing Firearm-Related Harms: Time for Us to Study and Speak Out," the Annals of Internal Medicine's editor in chief, Dr. Christine Laine, and executive deputy editor, Dr. Darren B. Taichman, write that the answer is that it doesn't matter. We have a public health crisis on our hands and something needs to be done.
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