In the wake of yet another preventable US gun violence tragedy — one that killed 21 people, including 19 children at a Texas elementary school — doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, health experts and scientists are once again demanding a much-anticipated, evidence-based public health response. on the unique American public health crisis of gun violence.
This is “very much our way,” Dr. Bindi Naik-Mathuria, a pediatric surgeon at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, told NBC.
She spoke vividly about the immediate impact AR-15 style weapons have on a human body, especially the smallest. In a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas this week, the shooter used an AR-15-style rifle (the Daniel Defense DDM4 V7 rifle), which he bought online. AR-15 style rifles are often used in mass shootings. They use a common military-caliber ammunition. The bullets don’t always pass cleanly through the flesh, but can instead become “unstable” and fall over, causing devastating damage that can render victims unrecognizable and with an exceptionally low survivability.
“It’s not just the hole you see on the outside. It’s a huge explosive effect,” Naik-Mathuria told NBC. ‘You see completely torn organs. Ships are completely disrupted. There’s no way to save them.’
The condition of some of the bullet-riddled bodies of the fourth-graders who died in this week’s shooting was so serious that authorities were forced to use DNA testing to identify their small corpses.
“We have our hands in these people, these children, trying to save them,” Naik-Mathuria added. “How can anyone tell us it’s not our problem?”
The job of public health
In 2018, the National Rifle Association attempted to do just that by tweeting, “Someone should be telling self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their jobs.” But medical and health experts continued to insist that this is, in fact, their way of starting the online movement.”#ThisIsOurLaneAnd their demands for action have only grown louder as gun violence has not only continued, but has increased.
In 2017, firearms injuries became the leading cause of death among children and teenagers, overtaking the more than 60-year series of motor vehicle accidents as the leading cause. According to an analysis published May 19, 2022 in The New England Journal of Medicine. Those numbers were mainly driven by an increase in the crude rate of firearms homicides among children and teens, which rose by 33 percent.
“This is about protecting people’s health. This is about protecting children’s lives,” Michael Dowling, president and CEO of New York-based Northwell Health, told Becker’s Hospital Review this week. “Gun violence is not an outside issue — it is a central public health issue for us. Every hospital leader in the United States should stand up and scream at what an abomination this is.”
In general, the US is relatively awash with weapons – and weapons tragedies. U.S. citizens own an estimated 393.3 million guns, or 120.5 per 100 residents, according to a 2018 report from the Small Arms Survey. The number is likely higher today. But that level of ownership already makes the US the highest-ranking country in the world for gun ownership. Of the high-income countries, Canada has the second-highest gun ownership rate, with 34.7 guns per 100 residents, less than a third of the US rate.
