Gun violence as a public health issue

[SecularMotion]

With last month’s controversy over Vivek Murthy’s nomination for surgeon general still fresh, the nation’s second-largest physicians group reaffirmed Thursday that it considers firearm violence a public health issue and issued a wide-ranging set of recommendations to address the deaths and injuries caused by guns.

The timing appears to be coincidental. But like Murthy — whose nomination was blocked in large part by a National Rifle Association offensive over his views on guns — the American College of Physicians believes doctors must take action against the 32,000 deaths and 74,000 injures caused by guns in the United States each year.

To support their view that guns are a public health issue, the association of 137,000 internal medicine physicians (Murthy is an internist himself) noted that there are about 11,000 homicides, 19,000 suicides and more than 2,000 fatal accidents involving guns every year. The total is down from its 1993 peak, and the number of gun homicides has declined even more rapidly, but the figure is still one of the highest in the developed world.

The average of 88 gun deaths per day is “a good-sized airplane crash every three days,” said Molly Cooke, the organization’s president.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/04/10/gun-violence-as-a-public-health-issue/

[hack89]

1. Then doctors have an obligation to learn about guns

Let's hope they become better informed then the typical fringe gun controller.

[clffrdjk]

2. Did you forget that you had already posted this story?

I can imagine keeping track of your google dumps is hard but I think you can do better than that.

[Duckhunter935]

3. he does so many

I am sure it is hard to keep track