In 2020 As the COVID-19 pandemic raged, the disease steadily grew and spread across the U.S. That fateful year, gun violence claimed the lives of 45,222 Americans, making it the deadliest year for gun deaths to date.
These deaths are complex and multi-layered. Each American killed by a bullet, each family who lost a loved one, deserves a book of their own. I never thought I’d write a story like this.
I am a gun-owning emergency physician, a father, and the cousin of a man who was shot and killed. Without the NRA, Declared in 2018 I would not be writing about this subject if I did not believe that physicians like me should “stay in my profession” and remain silent about the toll of this epidemic. But gun violence has taken my life. Almost daily, I see victims of gun violence — children, teens, adults — from family tragedies.
Confronting violence and death is the duty of anyone who has had to tend the wounds of a gunshot victim, attempted heroic treatment in a trauma room, meticulously treated the wounded in an intensive care unit, or conceded defeat before a loved one. There is no greater pain than having to tell a mother or father that their child has been killed by a gunshot. We have been practicing and perfecting evidence-based medicine for decades. Similarly, we should be practicing evidence-based health care policy. When it comes to guns, some of that evidence is already there.
As a physician, I understand the limitations of science. At least in the biomedical field, the best research usually requires results from randomized clinical trials, which are often not feasible to implement for policymaking. In public health, the next best thing is a natural experiment, where one jurisdiction implements a policy and a similar jurisdiction nearby does not, so policymakers can observe the difference.
RAND Corporation The Science of Gun ControlThis report, a compilation of studies on gun control policies in the United States, typically bases its analysis on these types of studies. The claims about the impact of various policies that could affect people’s lives in the face of an epidemic of gun violence are sometimes inconclusive, sometimes weak, and sometimes strong, but overall the analysis describes myriad policy steps that current lawmakers can, and in my opinion should, implement immediately at the federal, state, and local levels. The evidence shows that the following ways can save lives:
- Every firearm purchase is subject to a background check by a federally licensed firearms dealer
- Licenses and permits for individuals who want to purchase guns
- Raise the minimum age for all firearm purchases to 21
- Strong Child Access Prevention Laws
- Short waiting period
- A domestic violence restraining order requiring the surrender of an existing firearm.
However, I also believe two other laws should be repealed: Their existence in society should be a wake-up call for doctors, advocates, and those who make laws.
Policy prescription #1: Abolish the right of self-defense law
On February 26, 2012, Trayvon Martin, a black boy about my height and build, was walking down a residential street in Sanford, Florida, after buying a bag of Skittles and a drink. He was being followed by a local patrol captain. After an altercation (in which a 911 dispatcher urged the overzealous patrolman to avoid the altercation), Martin fell to the ground and died from a single gunshot wound that penetrated his heart and lungs.
All of this young man’s hopes and dreams of one day becoming a pilot were dashed by a man who was ultimately acquitted of murder charges due to Florida’s “self-defense” laws that have created a culture of approach, provoke and kill that undoubtedly contributed to the boy’s death.
