We made driving safer; we can do the same with guns

By

Opinion

September 18, 2019 - 10:29 AM

People hold their mobile phones with flash on during a vigil on Aug. 3 after a mass shooting that left 20 people dead in El Paso, Texas. A new survey shows both gun owners and non-gun owners support measures that would reduce gun violence. Herika Martinez/AFP/Getty Images/TNS

As trauma surgeons with more than 60 years of collective experience caring for victims of firearm violence, we have struggled as our patients — many of them children —died or were permanently disabled from preventable gun-related injuries. We have seen the agony in the eyes of their families. The U.S. is in the midst of the largest wave of mass firearm violence in modern history, yet polar political battles over “gun control” rage on, resulting in more division and no meaningful actions to reduce firearm injuries and deaths.

A solution to this impasse can be found in what some may view as an unlikely place: the public health approach to the prevention of death and disability from motor vehicle crashes.

Motor vehicle deaths have been on a steady decline using proven public health-based injury prevention strategies. As a society, we recognized the problem a half-century ago and committed to addressing it at the both federal and state levels.

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