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The decades-old battle over the role health professionals should play in reducing gun violence erupted on social media last week after the National Rifle Association urged doctors to "stay in their halls" rather to share their thoughts on firearms safety. Members of the medical community have viewed a viral and often graphic campaign on Twitter detailing the damage caused by firearms to the human body and the frequent efforts physicians must make to save the lives of those who have been shot, under the hashtag #Thisisourlane.
A working group of the American College of Surgeons announced Wednesday the release of a new set of recommendations on gun safety aimed at bridging the political divide. Recommendations, which include thorough background checks, enhanced firearms safety training, mandatory reporting requirements for those considered a threat to themselves or others, and 39; use of innovative technologies to prevent the accidental unloading of firearms, do not hit so much by their content as by their content. paternity.
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Eighteen of the 22 surgeon-authors are gun enthusiasts, including hunters, self-defense advocates, and physicians with previous military experience.
The document is "a brilliant application of well-established social science," said Jeremy Faust, an emergency physician at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital and an instructor at Harvard Medical School. Faust was not involved in creating the report. "People tend to change or moderate their position on a deep-rooted belief when the dominant argument comes from a trusted insider."
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The American College of Surgeons' gun control strategy team represents two key types of insiders, Faust said: "As surgeons, they know the ravages that guns can cause. . As gun owners, they understand the problems that non-gun owners might not fully understand. "
The group's recommendations come at a time when the long-standing divisions around firearms have become increasingly polarized in the midst of a steady stream of deadly shootings in places that many considered healthy: at school, at the synagogue, at a concert. The country has suffered a series of mass shootings this year, including the murder of 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue on October 27 and the November 7 carnage at a country music bar that killed 12 people in Thousand Oaks, California .
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Many health professionals believe that gun violence address as well as car or food safety, but the NRA has long advocated blocking firearms research as a public health problem. The sport and firearms safety group evolved into a powerful pro-gun lobby and encouraged Congress to adopt the Dickey amendment in 1996, reducing funding for gun violence research to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The NRA did not immediately respond to a request for comment after the publication of the report Wednesday at noon.
Two weeks ago, on October 30, the American College of Physicians released a discussion paper recommending "a public health approach" to gun violence and indicating that the medical profession has "a special responsibility "to express it. The NRA fought back, first with an editorial and then with a tweet on November 7, mocking the "important" doctors who dared to enter the debate.
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Doctors, nurses and other members of the medical community responded by publishing horrific photographs of operating room floors soaked with blood and accounts mutilated bodies and broken psyches related to the aftermath of armed violence.
"It's quite in my hallway," said Gary Timmerman, trauma surgeon and gun owner from Sioux Falls, DHS, who helped develop the recommendations. "These trauma victims come to us."
James Ficke, a Johns Hopkins surgeon who served for 30 years in the military and has described himself as a lifelong member of the NRA, said he was concerned that the campaign # Thisisourlane could turn against the responsible firearms owners and make the debate even more confrontational.
"We recognize that we have different 'lanes', but we absolutely have to exchange and align," said Ficke, author of the new report.
The authors stress the importance of "preserving the right to own and use a firearm" and adopting the point of view of gun owners.
"That's how we manage the safety of cyclists," said Ronald M. Stewart, a trauma surgeon in San Antonio and author of the newspaper. A public health approach to cycling safety would involve cyclists, he explained, because they have expertise on bicycles, understand the practical aspects of their use and are also at risk.
The team's recommendations, stemming from the collective horror that followed the murder of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 and which were refined by the working group over the past eight months, are surprisingly similar to those published two weeks ago. there is by the ACP, said Stewart.
The difference, he said, lies in the process of establishing a consensus that led them, which included a town hall of 250 doctors with very diverse points of view.
"It was one of the most civil and collegial events I've ever experienced," said Stewart. "At that time, we realized we could build bridges and work together."
The process impressed the experts in violence prevention.
"If we take politics out of this public health issue, we can come to a consensus," said Megan Ranney, an emergency physician in Rhode Island and head of research for American medicine.
Although the discussions that led to the recommendations were sometimes difficult, Timmerman said, as scientists who believe in evidence-based medicine, all involved surgeons have recognized the fundamental importance of research.
"We are not afraid to let the truth speak for itself," Timmerman said.
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