Today, our country is shocked once again by the killing of children and school personnel by a young man with a gun. We grieve for the victims, families, and the entire community of Uvalde, Texas.
We are angry, not only as a physician community shaken and saddened by the senseless loss of life caused by firearm violence, but as individuals who worry about the safety of the children and staff who arrived at their schools this morning.
Gun violence is the leading cause of death among children in the United States. It is unconscionable that many instances of children being harmed or killed by firearms have become commonplace – a blip in the news cycle and on our collective
conscience. We offer words of comfort, we ask for answers as to why the violence occurred, and we hope it won’t happen again. It’s easy to hope – to hope that this mass shooting will be the last. But we are no longer dealing with the “if.” It’s unfathomably
“when.”
We are long past the urgent stage when it comes to addressing this public health crisis that is hurting and killing our patients of all ages and devastating families and communities. Our country must adopt and deploy substantive and sensible changes now
– legislation that strengthens the process of background checks for those who intend to buy and own guns, a ban on assault weapon possession by private citizens, and an intensive and sustainable investment into research that aims to understand and
prevent firearm violence. If not, we can expect this epidemic of gun violence to continue.
Along with the Massachusetts congressional delegation, the Massachusetts Medical Society has for decades advocated for policies that will protect our patients from firearm injury and violence and advance firearm safety. We will continue that work and
will do so with a critical goal to protect our patients and our communities and to enact meaningful change to stem the preventable loss of life.
-Theodore A. Calianos, II, MD, FACS, President, Massachusetts Medical Society
