Back on October 29th, the American
College of Physicians published a major damning report on the effects of gun
violence in America, with a heavy focus on the devastating impact of
semi-automatic assault rifles, increasingly used by mass shooters to inflict
maximum fatalities. “The new
American College of Physicians position paper reinforced the importance of
doctors speaking to their patients about gun safety, especially as it relates
to mental health, domestic violence and children…
“Now,
some new or revised policy positions include the college supporting ‘appropriate
regulation of the purchase of legal firearms to reduce firearms-related
injuries and deaths’ and child access prevention laws that hold firearm owners
accountable for the safe storage of firearms.
“The
paper also noted how the group supports the enactment of extreme risk
protection order laws, which allow families and law enforcement to petition a
court to temporarily remove firearms from individuals who may be a risk to
themselves or others…
“Also,
the college favors the enactment of legislation to ban the manufacture, sale,
transfer and ownership of rapid-killing semiautomatic firearms for civilian use
that are designed to have increased rapid-killing capacity and large-capacity
magazines, along with retaining the current ban on automatic weapons for
civilian use…
“[The report
added:] ‘Although there is more to learn about the causes of firearm violence
and the best methods to prevent it, the available data support the need for a
multifaceted and comprehensive approach to reducing firearm violence that is
consistent with the Second Amendment.’" CNN.com, October 29th.
“In a contemptuous tweet, the National Rifle Assn. admonished
a medical group for speaking out about gun injuries and dismissed any concern
by saying that physicians should mind their own business… ‘Someone should tell
self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane,’ the NRA tweeted on Nov.
7. In drafting a policy statement that ‘reflects every anti-gunner’s public
policy wish list,’ the American College of Physicians ‘seems to have consulted
NO ONE but themselves,’ the NRA complained.
“The response from doctors has been
swift and sustained. And it has built on a growing consensus among medical
professionals that firearm injuries and deaths — whether self-inflicted,
accidental, in mass shootings or in the daily drumbeat of one-on-one gun
violence — amount to a ‘public health crisis that requires the nation’s
immediate attention.’
“This week [early December], in the
New England Journal of Medicine, a group of doctors made clear that those who
patch up the wounded, inform families of a loved one’s violent demise and
rehabilitate bodies shattered by gunfire will not be backing off anytime soon.
“‘As a profession, we have become
determined not just to develop solutions to this epidemic, but to make sure
they’re implemented,’ the doctors wrote… Their message is echoed by tweets from
physicians on the front lines of emergency and trauma medicine, who have shared
commentary and photos of their blood-stained workplaces with the hashtag
#ThisIsOurLane.” Los Angeles Times, December 8th.
The NRA, which successfully lobbied
passage of a 1996 statute (known as the “Dickey Amendment”) banning funding for
gun homicide research by the government’s Centers for Disease Control, claimed
that the doctors focused narrowly on their experience and lacked the national
statistics, which the NRA claimed (without evidence) would not support the
doctors’ report.
“‘The problem is that the ACP cites
‘studies’ that wouldn’t qualify as ‘evidence’ in any other debate,’ the NRA’s
Institute for Legislative Action wrote on its website. ‘One cited study was
focused on a single rural county in Iowa. Another was of 106 outpatients at a
single clinic. The authors acknowledge evidence is limited but cite their own
belief there is ‘enough evidence’ or simply argue the policy should be enacted
anyway.’” LA Times. Exactly how many more mass shootings with semi-automatic
assault rifles do we need to conclude the obvious? Even the NRA tells us that
there are over 15 million semi-automatic AR-15s in this country.
“In the days following the NRA’s
social media swipe, even U.S. Surgeon Gen. Jerome Adams, nominated to the
office by President Trump, begged to differ with the powerful gun rights
organization… At the American Public Health Assn.’s annual meeting in November,
Adams declared: ‘As a trauma anesthesiologist, if I want to talk to my patients
about gun safety, it’s totally within my lane.’
“Johns Hopkins Hospital trauma
surgeon Elliott R. Haut said the NRA — and Americans generally — have only
begun to hear from the physicians, nurses and first responders who care for
gunshot victims… For the NRA to dismiss the voices of professionals entrusted
with the lives of the injured — and who are frequently experts on injury
prevention as well — is not only profoundly misguided, ‘it’s offensive,’ Haut
said.
“Dr. Judy Melinek, a forensic
pathologist in San Francisco, seemed to sum up many doctors’ views in her
Twitter response to the NRA (profanity edited): … ‘Do you have any idea how
many bullets I pull out of corpses weekly?’ she demanded. ‘This isn’t just my
lane. It’s my ... highway.’” LA Times. Doctors are now generating the necessary
funding to overcome the deeply negative impact of the 1996 Dickey Amendment. “States
and private organizations have begun to fill the virtual void in federal
research funds for firearms-injury research.
“Under a five-year, $5-million state
appropriation, California has established the University of California Firearm
Violence Prevention Research Center, linking gun-injury prevention researchers
from UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Davis and UC Irvine.
“In May, the Laura and John Arnold
Foundation announced it would commit $20 million — and help raise another $30
million — for a multiyear research effort on gun-related violence. The
foundation’s commitment helped launch a national collaborative effort on gun
violence research at the Santa Monica-based Rand Corp.
“In April, Kaiser Permanente ponied
up at least $2 million for the study of gun-injury prevention. And Ranney said
that healthcare leaders from multiple specialties have so far raised $100,000
to create the American Foundation for Firearm Injury Reduction in Medicine, or
AFFIRM.” LA Times.
In the end, the Second Amendment was
all about letting the government’s Revolutionary War army, mostly volunteer
militia, keep their weapons between moments of conflict, nothing more.
Following intense social campaigns and lobbying, the NRA became an activist to
promote pervasive guns sales in 1976 after receiving substantial funding from
America’s gun manufacturers. The effort was wildly successful, even convincing right-wing
members of the Supreme Court to lose their “strict constructionist” mantra and
become “activists” in reinterpreting the plain meaning of the Constitution. Too
many Americans are being slaughtered to allow this callous, self-righteous
misinterpretation of the Second Amendment to continue.
I’m Peter Dekom, and
the time to have banned all assault weapons and limit gun ownership was
yesterday!
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