Citation

Campion EW, Morrissey S, Malina D, Sacks CA, Drazen JM. New Engl. J. Med. 2017; 377(17): 1679-1680.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Massachusetts Medical Society)

DOI

10.1056/NEJMe1713203

PMID

28976811

Abstract

We’ve seen so many mass shootings — in theaters, in churches, in nightclubs, in schools — that each new episode of the mass slaughter of Americans induces a weary sense of déjà vu.1,2 But some realities of the recent mass shooting in Las Vegas, the largest in modern history, might help produce action, rather than the paralysis we’ve seen for so many years. What’s different this time is the unprecedented magnitude of the killing. It appears that a single, heavily armed man was able to kill at least 58 people and wound nearly 500 more. He was untrained and unskilled but could direct his high-powered automatic and semiautomatic guns down on a crowd of some 22,000 people at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival. He fired thousands of rounds of ammunition from the 32nd floor of his hotel, a quarter mile from the concert venue. This 64-year-old man had no known political, racial, or religious agenda, and there was no history of known mental illness or criminal behavior. But he used his large arsenal of weapons to kill and maim more innocent Americans than anyone else has ever done.

A couple of lessons are clear from the Las Vegas shooting. First, few security measures within any venue can protect against assault from outside the venue. Second, readily available high-powered modern weaponry makes mass killing easy for a determined killer, even an inexperienced one. Third, the magnitude of the killing could have been far greater. Given his position and his firepower, the shooter could have killed thousands, if not for the courageous, coordinated assault by the highly trained Las Vegas law-enforcement team.

The horrific, indiscriminate shooting by a single person on a Sunday night created a massive, instant public health crisis, putting first responders at great risk, overwhelming hospitals, and disrupting much of the medical care delivery in the city. Thousands of health professionals helped to cope with the horror, from emergency personnel, to surgical trauma teams, to ICU staff, to the pathology professionals who must deal with identifying the dead. Scores more will be needed to help survivors with gunshot injuries through grueling physical rehabilitation. And we know that trauma like this mass shooting will produce emotional suffering for years to come.

The prevention of future mass killings should begin with...


[It appears that this editorial is open access via the doi link.]

Language: en