Eight professional health organizations call for action to reduce firearms injuries, deaths in the U.S.

Leaders from eight professional health organizations, including the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), and the American Bar Association have issued a call to action to reduce firearms injuries and deaths in the United States. The jointly agreed-to policy recommendations, based on positions already approved and adopted by the participating organizations, were published yesterday in Annals of Internal Medicine ("Firearm-Related Injury and Death in the United States: A Call to Action from Eight Health Professional Organizations and the American Bar Association") http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2151828.

"Gun injuries and deaths are a tragic fact of daily life at our nation's emergency departments," said the Executive Director of ACEP, Dean Wilkerson, JD, who is one of nine co-authors of the paper. "Although there is disagreement among emergency physicians about firearms in our society, we all agree that the cost in lives and dollars is too high. The rights of gun ownership can and must co-exist with a deliberate public health solution to the public health problem of gun violence. Physician groups like mine must take the lead."

The paper outlines the scope of deaths and injuries from firearms (32,000 deaths, twice as many non-fatal injuries), and proposes policies supporting background checks for firearms purchases, the end to physician "gag laws," meaningful improvement in access to mental health care, an end to blanket reporting laws by physicians, restrictions on firearms designed to increase rapid and extended killing capacity, and adequate funding for research on the impact of gun violence by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health and National Institute of Justice.

"Emergency physicians have been on the record for a long time about improved access to mental health services, as they see the consequences of unmet psychiatric needs in their ERs every day," said Mr. Wilkerson. "When it comes to mental illness and gun violence, our main concern is the role that firearms play in suicide. It is critical that we keep guns away from those who may harm themselves or others without depriving everyone who has ever been diagnosed with mental illness of their constitutionally protected rights to possess firearms."

Mr. Wilkerson also emphasized the importance of physician autonomy in what they communicate with and about their patients: "Just as it is wrong for state and federal gag laws to create unhealthy barriers between patients and their physicians, blanket reporting laws violate the sacred trust between physicians and their patients."

The paper's emphasis on restoring funding for research into the causes and consequences of firearms violence and accidental injuries, as well as on strategies to reduce them, is of particular importance to ACEP, as much of its history and mission are focused on injury prevention.

"Emergency physicians have a unique view on the brutal and bloody effects of gun violence," said Mr. Wilkerson. "They are also scientists who prize evidence-based strategies for treating injuries and disease. We can only move the art and science of medicine forward by putting resources into research on the causes of gun violence and how to prevent it."