Citation

Ames EL. J. Am. Osteopath. Assoc. 2018; 118(2): 64-66.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, American Osteopathic Association)

DOI

10.7556/jaoa.2018.019

PMID

29379969

Abstract

It seems like hardly a day goes by that a shooting is not reported in the media. After each shooting, the rhetoric is predictable and partisan.1 Democrats favor stricter gun control laws, whereas Republicans favor expansion of gun rights.1,2 Many physicians consider firearm violence to be a public health issue, yet federal funding to study this issue is lacking.3 The rhetoric soon dissipates, and nothing changes.
Firearm ownership in the United States continues to increase, with most gun owners reporting gun ownership for personal protection.2 As of 2009, there were an estimated “310 million firearms available to civilians in the United States.”4 At that time, the number of firearm suicides and unintentional deaths was 18,735 and 554, respectively.4 Regardless of one's ideology regarding firearm ownership, all parties should agree that reducing unintentional death and injury from firearms is necessary. How to achieve that goal, however, remains elusive. (Although prevention of intentional and mass shootings certainly deserves attention, that topic is outside the scope of this essay.) ...

Language: en