AMA: Bipartisan gun safety proposal ‘will save lives’
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Senators have announced a bipartisan proposal to reduce the threat of gun violence in the United States.
The plan includes investments in mental health services via telehealth and a more thorough review process for firearm buyers aged younger than 21 years.
AMA President Gerald E. Harmon, MD, said the bipartisan proposal is “a breakthrough that shows compromise is possible,” and the agreement “will save lives.”
“The measures announced ... must be only a first step in confronting the public health crisis of gun violence,” he said in a statement. “We urge all senators to support this deal and to continue working together to prevent the type of violence we as physicians see on a daily basis in emergency departments, trauma centers and morgues in every single state of our country.”
‘Important steps in the right direction’
The gun safety proposal was introduced by 20 U.S. senators: Chris Murphy, D-Conn.; John Cornyn, R-Texas; Thom Tillis, R-N.C.; Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz.; Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.; Roy Blunt, R-Mo.; Cory Booker, D- N.J.; Richard Burr, R-N.C.; Bill Cassidy, R-La.; Susan Collins, R-Maine; Chris Coons, D-Del.; Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Martin Heinrich, D-N.M.; Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.; Angus King, I-Maine; Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.; Rob Portman, R-Ohio; Mitt Romney, R-Utah; Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.; and Pat Toomey, R-Pa.
“Our plan increases needed mental health resources, improves school safety and support for students, and helps ensure dangerous criminals and those who are adjudicated as mentally ill can’t purchase weapons,” the senators wrote in a joint statement.
More specifically, the proposal includes:
- resources for states and tribes to create and implement laws that help prevent individuals “whom a court has determined to be a significant danger to themselves or others” from purchasing firearms;
- the inclusion of any “convicted domestic violence abusers and individuals subject to domestic violence restraining orders,” such as those “who have or have had a continuing relationship of a romantic or intimate nature” in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System;
- crackdowns on criminals who illegally evade gun licensing requirements and “straw purchase” or traffic firearms;
- an enhanced review process for buyers aged younger than 21 years, including an investigative period to review juvenile and mental health records from state databases and local law enforcement;
- investments to improve access to mental and behavioral health services in schools and through telehealth, as well as other community support services such as trauma and recovery services; and
- investments in safety measures in and around schools, including training for school personnel and students.
President Joe Biden said the proposal does not include everything that is needed to combat gun violence, “but it reflects important steps in the right direction and would be the most significant gun safety legislation to pass Congress in decades.”
“With bipartisan support, there are no excuses for delay, and no reason why it should not quickly move through the Senate and the House,” he said in a statement. “Each day that passes, more children are killed in this country: the sooner it comes to my desk, the sooner I can sign it, and the sooner we can use these measures to save lives.”
Physicians ‘should be leaders on this issue’
During the AMA’s House of Delegates Meeting, Harmon said that physicians “are on the front lines of responding to the epidemic of gun violence.”
“Gun violence is a plague on our nation. It is a public health crisis. And much of it is preventable,” he said. “Almost every day in this country, we bear witness to the shocking brutality of weapons of war being unleashed on society ... on elementary school students and movie theater goers ... on grocery store shoppers and people in houses of worship ... on physicians and health care workers in hospitals and clinics. This cannot be our new normal. Gun violence is out of control. Enough is enough.”
The AMA’s House of Delegates first declared gun violence a public health crisis in 2016. Prior to that, Harmon said the AMA pushed Congress for “commonsense reforms that can help keep guns from the hands of people seeking to inflict pain on others.”
The AMA supports bans on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, as well as stronger background checks and extended waiting periods on firearm sales, Harmon said.
“We know there are millions of responsible gun owners in America. I, myself, am a lifelong hunter and I appreciate the importance of protecting the rights granted to us by the Constitution,” he said. “But this isn’t what we’re talking about. We’re talking about keeping weapons of war from those seeking to cause violence and mayhem.”
He encouraged physicians to counsel patients on firearm safety and to be active participants in the conversation around gun violence prevention.
“We should be leaders on this issue. And we are, through our work here at the AMA, but also in our home states and communities,” Harmon said. “We must do something. The time for Congress, and us, to act is now.”
References:
AMA applauds bipartisan gun deal. https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ama-applauds-bipartisan-gun-deal. Published June 12, 2022. Accessed June 13, 2022.
Bipartisan group of senators announce agreement. https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/bipartisan-group-of-senators-announce-agreement. Published June 12, 2022. Accessed June 13, 2022.
President Gerald E. Harmon, MD, remarks on gun violence at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the HOD. https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/speeches/president-gerald-e-harmon-md-remarks-gun-violence-2022-annual-meeting-hod. Published June 10, 2022. Accessed June 13, 2022.
Statement by President Biden on bipartisan senate gun safety proposal. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/06/12/statement-by-president-biden-on-bipartisan-senate-gun-safety-proposal/. Published June 12, 2022. Accessed June 13, 2022.
Perspective
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While this is certainly progress toward safety in this complicated and divisive debate, I am concerned about the reliance placed on our ability to detect concerning mental health issues. Although the current legislation will identify those with the most severe impairment and greatest risk of harming others, think about how many perpetrators have been described as “good neighbors” after their rampage unfolds. Furthermore, mental health is not a static disease, highlighting the concern that weapons may be obtained at a point when severe mental illness is not apparent to the high standard of a court.
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