Friday, June 15, 2018
Frustrated (but massively ignorant) AMA adopts sweeping policies to cut gun violence
[Editor's note: The AMA appears to have acted without conducting the research that would have been appropriate to warrant such drastic action. Not only has gun violence been decreasing in recent years, but gun ownership and gun homicides are inversely related. Most strikingly, the AMA seems to have bought--hook, link and sinker--the authenticity of reports about school shootings around the US, including Sandy Hook, Parkland and (most recently) Santa Fe, which have been exposed as events that were staged to promote the gun control agenda of the Democratic Party.]
CHICAGO (AP) — With frustration mounting over lawmakers' inaction on gun
control, the American Medical Association on Tuesday pressed for a ban
on assault weapons and came out against arming teachers as a way to
fight what it calls a public health crisis.
At its annual policy making meeting, the nation's largest physicians
group bowed to unprecedented demands from doctor-members to take a
stronger stand on gun violence — a problem the organizations says is as
menacing as a lethal infectious disease.
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The action comes against a backdrop of recurrent school shootings,
everyday street violence in the nation's inner cities, and rising U.S.
suicide rates.
"We as physicians are the witnesses to the human toll of this disease,"
Dr. Megan Ranney, an emergency-medicine specialist at Brown University,
said at the meeting.
AMA delegates voted to adopt several of nearly a dozen gun-related
proposals presented by doctor groups that are part of the AMA's
membership. They agreed to:
— Support any bans on the purchase or possession of guns and ammunition by people under 21.— Back laws that would require licensing and safety courses for gun owners and registration of all firearms.— Press for legislation that would allow relatives of suicidal people or those who have threatened imminent violence to seek court-ordered removal of guns from the home.— Encourage better training for physicians in how to recognize patients at risk for suicide.— Push to eliminate loopholes in laws preventing the purchase or possession of guns by people found guilty of domestic violence, including expanding such measures to cover convicted stalkers.
Many AMA members are gun owners or supporters, including a doctor from
Montana who told delegates of learning to shoot at a firing range in the
basement of her middle school as part of gym class. But support for
banning assault weapons was overwhelming, with the measure adopted in a
446-99 vote.
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"There's a place to start and this should be it," Dr. Jim Hinsdale, a
San Jose, California, trauma surgeon, said before the vote.
Gun violence is not a new issue for the AMA; it has supported past
efforts to ban assault weapons; declared gun violence a public health
crisis; backed background checks, waiting periods and better funding for
mental health services; and pressed for more research on gun violence
prevention.
But Dr. David Barbe, whose one-year term as AMA president ended Tuesday,
called the number of related measures on this year's agenda
extraordinary and said recent violence, including the Parkland, Florida,
school shooting and the Las Vegas massacre, "spurred a new sense of
urgency ... while Congress fails to act."
"It has been frustrating that we have seen so little action from either
state or federal legislators," he said. "The most important audience for
our message right now is our legislators, and second most important is
the public, because sometimes it requires public pressure on the
legislators."
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While it is no longer viewed as the unified voice of American medicine,
the AMA has more clout with politicians and the public than other doctor
groups. It counted more than 243,000 members in 2017, up slightly for
the seventh straight year. But it represents less than one-quarter of
the nation's million-plus physicians.
The National Rifle Association didn't immediately respond to email and phone requests for comment on the doctors' votes.
AMA members cited U.S. government data showing almost 40,000 deaths by
gun in 2016, including suicides, and nearly 111,000 gun injuries. Both
have been rising in recent years.
By comparison, U.S. deaths from diabetes in 2016 totaled almost 80,000;
Alzheimer's, 111,000; and lung disease, 155,000. The leaders are heart
disease, with 634,000 deaths in 2016, and cancer, about 600,000.
Jim Fetzer, a former Marine Corps officer, is McKnight Professor Emeritus on the Duluth Campus of the University of Minnesota and co-editor of moonrockbooks.com.
Jim Fetzer, a former Marine Corps officer, is McKnight Professor Emeritus on the Duluth Campus of the University of Minnesota and co-editor of moonrockbooks.com.
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