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Affiliation
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Associate Professor Medicine, pat-time, Harvard, 50 Staniford St, Suite 750, Boston, MA 02114.. Electronic address: ehoffer@gmail.com. |
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Abstract
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And so it goes on. Within 24 hours in August, at least 20 people killed in a mass shooting in an El Paso, Tx Walmart and 9 killed while enjoying themselves on a summer evening in Dayton, Ohio. This brings to 22 the number of mass killings in the U.S. in 2019. Will our response be any different this time?
The Sandy Hook elementary school shooting occurred on December 14, 2012 in Newtown, CT when 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people, including 20 children between six and seven years old, and six adult staff members. Before driving to the school, he shot and killed his mother at their Newtown home. As first responders arrived at the school, Lanza committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. The shooting prompted renewed debate about gun control in the U.S., including proposals for universal background checks, and for laws banning the sale and manufacture of certain types of semi-automatic weapons and magazines holding more than ten rounds of ammunition. Despite the universal horror expressed, in the end, nothing changed. Instead we seem to have grown to accept mass killings as the new normal.
Last fall, the National Rifle Association condemned doctors who spoke out against gun violence, telling us to "stay in our lane." Reducing preventable deaths is the main lane for doctors.
Despite thinking that doctors would not be targeted because we are here to help, we are not immune. The tragic shooting at Mercy Hospital in Chicago on November 19 that left an emergency physician among the victims brought home to physicians how vulnerable we all are to acts of violence.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released last fall a report on firearm homicides and suicides. In an understated way, it said that "firearm homicides and suicides represent a continuing public health concern in the United States." In 2015 and 2016, the U.S. experienced 27,394 homicides, including 3,224 among youths ages 10 to 19, from guns. In the same period there were 44,955 firearm suicides, including 2,118 among 10-to-19-year-olds.
We are so much worse than any other Western democracy that comparisons are almost meaningless ...
Language: en |