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Abstract
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Doctors' groups in the US are renewing their push for gun control after a traumatic fortnight of shootings that began with the massacre of schoolchildren at Uvalde, Texas, and ended with an attack on an Oklahoma hospital that left five people dead.
Two doctors, a nurse, and a man accompanying his wife to an appointment were killed at St Francis Hospital in Tulsa by Michael Louis, 45, who took his own life when police arrived. Tulsa police chief Wendell Franklin said a letter found on Louis's body "made it clear that he came in with the intent to kill Dr Phillips and anyone who got in his way. He blamed Dr Phillips for the ongoing pain following the surgery." Orthopaedic surgeon Preston Phillips, 59, had performed back surgery on Louis on 19 May. Franklin told reporters that in the following days Louis called the hospital several times, "complaining of back pain and wanting additional assistance."
Phillips saw him at a follow-up appointment last week, but the next day Louis called again. Three days after that, he bought a rifle and a handgun and went to the hospital.
Also killed in the attack was sports medicine physician Stephanie Husen, 48, nurse Amanda Glenn, 40, and William Love, 73, husband of a patient.
Just before the Tulsa shooting, the American Medical Association wrote to Congress, which is debating the Protecting Our Kids Act, a bill put forward in response to the Uvalde mass shooting. The AMA voiced its support for stricter background checks, magazine capacity limits, safe storage laws, and raising the age requirement for purchasing semiautomatic rifles from 18 to 21...
Language: en |