Citation

Cunningham RM, Zimmerman MA, Carter PM. JAMA Netw. Open 2019; 2(2): e187823.

Affiliation

Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Michigan School of Medicine, Ann Arbor.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, American Medical Association)

DOI

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.7823

PMID

30794293

Abstract

Firearm injuries are a significant US public health problem, responsible for nearly 40 000 deaths annually.1 In 2017, firearms surpassed motor vehicle crashes and are now second only to opioid and other drug-related overdoses as the leading cause of injury-related death. One of the most appalling aspects of this public health tragedy is the toll that such firearm injuries extract on the most vulnerable populations, particularly children, adolescents, and elderly people. Among children and adolescents, firearms are the second leading cause of death overall and are the leading cause of death for African American youth. Among elderly people (≥65 years of age), firearms are responsible for 70% of the more than 8200 completed suicide attempts every year. Apart from the human costs, firearm-related injuries also cost society an estimated $230 billion annually, considering costs for acute medical care, long-term disability and rehabilitation care, lost work and productivity, and criminal justice proceedings.

Health care professionals experience daily the physical and emotional toll of firearm-related injury, whether they are emergency medicine or trauma specialists who care for acutely injured patients in the trauma bay, operating theater, or intensive care units or the internal medicine, pediatric, family medicine, rehabilitation, or psychiatry specialists who serve patients and their families dealing with the aftermath of a firearm injury. The depth of their investment in this issue was recently demonstrated through the nationwide response to the National Rifle Association’s (NRA’s) statement admonishing physicians to “stay in their lane” and avoid commenting on public policies designed to address firearm safety. Health care professionals responded with social and mass media and journal editorials describing their encounters with patients injured by firearms. Health care professionals demonstrated that contrary to the NRA position, they have an undeniably central role and authority in addressing this public health problem through the direct care that they provide to patients and their families, prevention-based research, and advocacy for policy-level changes that make patients safer.

Although social media have served as a galvanizing force for the health care community, national health care organizations ...

Language: en