Schaumburg, Illinois Aug 8, 2019 (Issuewire.com) - Gun violence is a public health issue. Time and time again, the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) as an organization stands to decrease the burden of gun-related fatalities and violence. In the first weekend of August 2019, mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas were widely publicized. A significant number of other shootings that wounded and killed multiple people occurred in this timeframe. We must pay attention to every symptom in this public health tragedy.
Gun violence as a public health problem which causes death, injury, and trauma. We must consider every way that gun violence affects our communities’ health. The cost of gun violence is significant and drains our resources. Gun violence causes depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety not only in the victims and their families but in their caregivers, communities and friends.
A study from Florida Atlantic University Schmidt College of Medicine found that from 1999- 2017 over 38,942 fatalities occurred in children aged 5-18 years of age. This documented that more US school-age children die from guns than on-duty US police or global military fatalities combined!
AMWA supports more dollars for gun safety research and calls for a ban on assault rifles and bump stocks. We support the bills that have already been passed to expand background checks. We recognize the impact that gun violence has on our patients, our communities, our physicians and other caregivers. AMWA acknowledges gun violence for what it really is: a deadly epidemic.
Media Contact
American Medical Women's Association AssociateDirector@amwa-doc.org 1100 E Woodfield Road, Suite 350 http://amwa-doc.org
