AMA recommends new, common-sense policies to prevent gun violence

CHICAGO — Shocked by the massacre at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando in 2016, the American Medical Association (AMA) declared that gun violence in America is a public health crisis. Since then, tens of thousands more Americans have died in gun violence, in mass shootings and suicides, incidents that often stunned the nation and sometimes went unnoticed even locally. Delegates to the AMA Annual Meeting this week seized on this sense of urgency and passed numerous resolutions that bolstered the AMA’s already strong policy on gun violence prevention, ranging from banning bump stocks to opposing concealed carry reciprocity legislation. 

“People are dying of gun violence in our homes, churches, schools, on street corners and at public gatherings, and it’s important that lawmakers, policy leaders and advocates on all sides seek common ground to address this public health crisis,” said AMA Immediate Past President David O. Barbe, M.D. “In emergency rooms across the country, the carnage of gun violence has become a too routine experience. Every day, physicians are treating suicide victims, victims of domestic partner violence, and men and women simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. It doesn’t have to be this way, and we urge lawmakers to act.”