There are more than 400 million guns in this county - more guns than people. The United States has a gun homicide rate 26 times that of other high-income countries, according to the research and policy organization Everytown. Gun Violence Is a Uniquely American Issue It’s not uncommon for victims to show up at the hospital with 10 or 20 gunshot wounds. In addition, the number of homicide victims shot multiple times increased from 59 percent in 2005 to 70 percent in 2015.Īs trauma surgeons, we have witnessed this firsthand. A investigation published by The Baltimore Sun in 2016 called "Shoot to Kill" showed that in 2015, 62 percent of homicide victims were shot in the head, up from 40 percent in 2000. The intensity of gun violence is also drastically increasing. This is why we must address both the social and political determinants of health.īut gun violence transcends race: For the first time in 40 years, gun-related incidents (including homicides, suicides, and unintentional injury) have surpassed motor vehicle crashes to become the leading cause of death among children and teens regardless of race. People of color are more likely to live in poorer neighborhoods with underfunded public services, few economic opportunities, and limited healthcare access. Structural violence has much to do with this. Every day, young brown and Black men are slaughtered on our streets, and their stories often go untold or unnoticed.ĭeaths are only one part of the equation: This past year in Baltimore City, we saw 728 nonfatal shootings. It’s crucial to acknowledge that the problem isn’t simply mass shootings, which account for less than 2 percent of firearm-related deaths.
Then came the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 elementary-school children and two teachers dead. Just last week in Buffalo, New York, a white 18-year-old armed with an assault rifle - a weapon of war outfitted with a large-capacity magazine - targeted a predominantly Black community with the goal of systematically killing as many people as quickly as possible. In recent years there have been mass shootings in Charleston, Pittsburgh, and El Paso, all racially and ethnically motivated hate crimes. Which raises the question: What are we as a society doing to stop gun violence before it starts? Gun Violence Is a Public Health Crisis So we can say with certainty: The best medical treatment for gun violence is prevention. One of us has even experienced them firsthand, as a survivor of gun violence.
Working as trauma surgeons in a large city, we witness the deadly consequences of America’s weak gun policies every day. The young Black mother became the third victim of gun violence to die within those walls in less than an hour. Our healthcare team at the Johns Hopkins Hospital made all the right lifesaving maneuvers, but it wasn’t enough. On a beautiful summer night in Baltimore City, a pregnant woman lay in the trauma bay of a hospital emergency room - pulseless, lifeless.