Citation

Clark J. Lancet 2024; 403(10425): e425.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2024, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/S0140-6736(24)00144-2

PMID

38309773

Abstract

"There are 400 million guns in a country of 330 million", says Shannon Watts, the dynamic founder of Moms Demand Action, a grass-roots network in the USA that advocates for public safety measures to prevent gun violence. "Every day, 120 Americans are killed with guns and more than 200 are shot and wounded. Since 2020, guns are now the leading cause of death among children aged 1-19 years in America", she explains. Watts attributes the harms from gun violence to a "gun culture" tied to the Second Amendment of the US Constitution guaranteeing the right to bear arms in a country where the powerful gun lobby group the National Rifle Association (NRA) uses its substantial budget and support to influence members of Congress on gun policy. Yet Watts highlights how "There is such a strong misperception that guns are polarising when in fact the majority of Americans support common sense gun control laws", she says. "The problem is that a vocal minority of gun lobbyists have been very influential in law-making."

Language: en