Gun violence: US doctors’ groups call for action

After the mass shootings last week in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, seven leading US medical and public health organisations have called for comprehensive steps against gun violence, which they called a critical public health issue.1

“As with other public-health crises, firearm-related injury and death are preventable,” the organizations said.

The American College of Physicians, the Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Surgeons, the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Public Health Association—together representing some 731 000 physicians—issued an eight step policy paper.

The paper …