The American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM), the medical specialty society representing physicians who dedicate their careers to disease prevention and health promotion, is greatly saddened by the mass shooting incidents that happened over the past week.
The American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM), the medical specialty society representing physicians who dedicate their careers to disease prevention and health promotion, is greatly saddened by the mass shooting incidents that happened over the past week. At least 32 people were killed and 52 wounded in Gilroy, California, El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio.
More than 100 people are shot to death every day in America. Nearly 40,0001 people in the United States were killed with guns in 2017, reaching the highest number of gun deaths in 40 years. Americans are 25 times more likely to be killed in a gun homicide compared to people in peer countries2.
“Every death by gunshot is preventable, whether accidental or purposeful,” stated Stephanie Zaza, MD, MPH, FACPM, President of the American College of Preventive Medicine. “This is a public health crisis that has been ignored for far too long. Preventive Medicine physicians join our colleagues in pediatrics, family medicine, emergency medicine, trauma surgery, and psychiatry to urge Congress and the Administration to take immediate action.” ACPM recommends common-sense prevention efforts to reduce both accidental and purposeful gun injuries, including universal background checks, a ban on large-capacity ammunition magazines with features designed to increase their rapid and extended killing capacity, the prohibition of armor-piercing rounds that disproportionately affect law enforcement, safe gun storage laws, funding of at least $50 million in the federal government’s Fiscal Year 2020 budget for gun violence research and $25.5 million for the National Violent Death Reporting System, and improved access to and funding for mental health care.
1 https://lawcenter.giffords.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Giffords-Law-Center-Facts-about-Gun-Violence.pdf
2 https://lawcenter.giffords.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Giffords-Law-Center-Facts-about-Gun-Violence.pdf