“We’ve got to stop the tolerance of allowing and accepting the violence.” Gov. Jim Justice, July 15.
Yes, gun violence is horrible and should not be tolerated. But why didn’t Gov. Justice (or Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., or Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va.) mention guns in their statements condemning the assassination attempt of former president and presidential candidate Donald Trump?
The United States had 48,000 gun deaths just last year, over 130 per day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Half were suicides, made very quick and easy through access to guns. The rest were almost all homicides. There were even more gun incidents whereby the injured lived. Nearly three-fourths of these were firearm assaults. The situation is tragic for men (86% of victims are male).
Plus, per Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy in a statement issued last month, “gun violence is the leading cause of death among kids and teens.” Our rate of children dying due to guns is six times that of neighboring Canada.
Schools have been raising red flags regarding cyberbullying and deteriorating student mental health. Bullying clearly has increased due to electronic communications. However, no other developed nation has shown our lack of concern for provision of mental health services.
Three million adolescents have seriously thought about suicide. That’s 19% of our teens. Almost half of them (9%) have already attempted suicide, according to the CDC. And many students are being arrested for gun possession, often stealing them from oblivious parents who do not even bother to lock firearms away.
The surgeon general stated that the gun violence epidemic is getting worse. And it clearly is. Primarily due to politics, gun violence in the U.S. has been out of control for decades. The recent assassination attempt should make the GOP rethink its position, but it will not.
In July 2016, American Medical Association President Steven J. Stack, made the following revolutionary statement: “With approximately 30,000 men, women and children dying each year at the barrel of a gun in elementary schools, movie theaters, workplaces, houses of worship and on live television, the United States faces a public health crisis of gun violence.”
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Dr. Stack went on to state that we have more firearm violence than other developed nations. And that unregulated/poorly regulated possession of handguns and rifles is “a serious threat to the public’s health.”
But it has been nearly a decade since the AMA made the above statement and provided recommendations for action. In just 8 years, U.S. gun deaths are up 60%. Plus, no surprise, we have more guns than ever.
Based on gun manufacturer records, there are an estimated 400 million guns circulating in the U.S., only 15% of which are registered (per AMMO.com). An astounding one-third of American adults now own a gun; even one-fifth of registered Democrats own a firearm, according to Pew Research.
Owners cite personal protection as the primary reason for ownership (72%). However, only about half of all Americans believe that gun ownership increases safety. Only 37% of non-gun owners think that safety is increased via gun ownership.
There was a recent column in Modern Healthcare, the major national publication for hospital administrators, headlined, “Health systems find common ground on firearm safety.” As a health care professional, I fully support the long overdue efforts of the National Health Care CEO Council on Gun Violence Prevention and Safety, as far as they go (gun locks and improved mental health treatment).
But the council misses the big picture. America must start looking realistically at gun violence and stop moving in the wrong direction. The NRA approach is just plain wrong. The more guns we have, the more firearm deaths occur.
Prayer, the usual ambiguous solution proposed by right wing politicos, will also not help.
But there are reasonable solutions short of taking away our guns (I own one). For decades, AMA policy has supported federal and state gun policies and laws which mandated: a waiting period before purchasing; background checks for all handgun purchasers; stronger enforcement of existing firearm laws; and mandatory penalties for illegal firearm possession and gun crimes. Let’s start there.
