Pulling Bullets Out of Corpses - #ThisIsOurLane

 

Back on October 29^th, 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 29^th.

“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 8^th.

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!