AAP, ACP renew calls on Congress to act on gun violence

Colleen Kraft

In the wake of a high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 children and adults and injured at least 14, the president of the AAP has issued a statement renewing the academy’s call on Congress “to take meaningful action” on gun violence by advancing gun legislation, including a ban on assault weapons.

The American College of Physicians (ACP) also issued a press release, stating, “as our country deals with the 30th mass shooting and the 18th school shooting in 2018, ACP would like to express our growing frustration on the lack of action on firearms policy that is truly needed to protect Americans.”

“As our hearts are in Parkland, our eyes are on Congress,” Colleen Kraft, MD, FAAP, AAP president, said in the statement from the AAP. “This is the 18th school shooting in 2018, the equivalent of one every 2½ days so far this year.”

“Shootings have an indelible impact on entire communities, on the families who lost children and loved ones, and on the children who survived. Columbine. Virginia Tech. Newtown. Orlando. Las Vegas. And now, Parkland. Children are dying from gun violence and Congress is failing to act,” Kraft said.

“Every one of our 100 U.S. senators, and all 435 U.S. representatives bear a responsibility to take meaningful action to protect our children, our families, and our communities. Our elected leaders cannot continue to fail at this most essential task.”

The AAP has advocated gun reform over the past year, both in December on the fifth anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting and at its annual meeting, where Fernando Stein, MD, FAAP, past-president of the AAP, encouraged pediatricians to continue to “safeguard public health.”

“There is no secret about what is happening in our neighborhoods and our nation,” Stein said at the annual meeting. “Firearm-related incidents are the he third leading cause of death among U.S. children 1 to 17 years of age — 4.2% of children witnessed a shooting last year.”

According to a separate statement from the AAP in December, 91 people die from firearm injury in the United States daily. Furthermore, gun violence disproportionally affects children in the U.S., with 91% of all global pediatric firearm-related deaths occurring within the country.

In the most recent AAP statement, Kraft said that the academy is advocating stronger state and federal gun laws protecting children, which includes a ban on assault weapons like the one used in the Florida shooting. The AAP also is calling for stronger background checks, solutions to firearm trafficking and the encouragement of safe firearm storage.

“We will also continue to work to ensure that children and their families have access to appropriate mental health services, particularly to address the effects of exposure to violence,” Kraft said.

The ACP also specifically called on Congress to act.

“It’s more important than ever that Congress and states implement common-sense policies that ban the sale of automatic and semiautomatic military-style ‘assault’ weapons that are designed to kill as many people as possible, as quickly as possible — the weapon of choice in yesterday’s shooting and dozens of others in recent years,” it stated in its press release. “The skyrocketing rate of injuries and deaths related from firearms show that one thing is clear: lack of policy on firearms is the reason the U.S. remains a country with one of the highest rates of gun violence in the world.”

The ACP reported it has advocated the for the need to address firearms-related injuries and deaths for more than 20 years, including publishing a comprehensive set of recommendations in 2014. The ACP also reported that in 2015, it joined with the American College of Surgeons; American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Public Health Association, American Psychiatric Association; American Academy of Family Physicians, AAP and American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Bar Association in a “call to action” to address gun violence as a serious threat to public health. The statement included restrictions on sale of assault weapons, improving reporting laws and closing gaps in background checks, according to the release.