Citation

Gostin LO. J. Am. Med. Assoc. JAMA 2016; 315(5): 453-454.

Affiliation

University Professor and Faculty Director, O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown University Law Center, and Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on Public Health Law and Human Rights. His most recent bo.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, American Medical Association)

DOI

10.1001/jama.2015.19497

PMID

26836718

Abstract

After the December 2, 2015, terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, that left 14 people dead and 21 injured, the same, repetitive, “Groundhog Day” narrative played out on gun control as with other salient mass shootings, including a school in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado, a community college in Roseburg, Oregon, and a church in Charleston, South Carolina (http://bit.ly/1lCZvbH). That narrative has become so predictable that I despair the political community ever finding middle ground.

After such tragedies, Democrats urge “sensible” gun control, such as more rigorous background checks. Republicans claim that calls for gun control exploit a tragedy and are futile in preventing mass shootings. They say the answer to mass shootings is more, not fewer, guns, and firearm purchases soar after mass shootings as tens of thousands of people vote with their feet.

But Australia and the United Kingdom have vastly reduced firearm-related deaths through legal reform (http://nyti.ms/1Ita9hX). And even though the US Supreme Court has ruled—controversially and ahistorically—that the Second Amendment protects private ownership of firearms (http://bit.ly/1OlJXXr), the Court recently refused to hear a Second Amendment challenge to a Chicago ordinance that banned semiautomatic assault weapons and large-capacity magazines (http://1.usa.gov/1N6APUC). And the lower US courts have all upheld reasonable firearm regulations.

From a public health perspective, of course, the solution is tight regulatory control over firearms, including rigorous background checks, safety rules, and the types of firearms permitted. Here are 4 reforms to keep us safer...

Language: en