The Worst of Times for Far Too Many
Gun Violence Is a Public Health and Safety Problem
When random mass murder and ecological disaster merge, the level of suffering can be incomprehensible. The death toll in November from California wildfires has now reached 87, with 500-plus still missing. Thirteen people were gunned down November 7 at a Thousand Oaks Bar & Grill — including Carpinteria’s Mark Meza — 12 others were wounded. The country continues to grieve and attempt to comprehend the loss of 11 worshippers in a mass shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue.
The number of mass shootings in the U.S. this year has already reached 323, as many as days in 2018. In 2017 there were 273 mass shootings. A mass shooting is four or more killed. These numbers do not reflect the number of suicides; more than 60 percent of the 38,000-plus gun deaths in America are suicides. The remainder of gun deaths are homicides, often in domestic violence situations and so-called accidents that take the lives of young children. There is currently a website solely devoted to American gun death information: gunviolencearchive.org/.
The Annals of Internal Medicine published a set of guidelines, 11-14-2018, by the Health and Public Policy Committee of the American College of Physicians (ACP) addressing the problem of firearm-related injuries and death from a public health perspective. The National Rifle Association (NRA) rebuked the ACP — and physicians in general —on Twitter, saying: “Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane.” In response, medical professionals created viral hash-tags, #ThisISMyLane and #ThisISOurLane, sharing vivid stories of their clinical experiences with gunshot wound victims, arguing that despite what the NRA might believe, the issue falls unavoidably into the laps of medical practitioners.
