Physicians Asked to Help Curb Children's Access to Guns

[SecularMotion]

CHICAGO — Physicians must do more to help reduce the rate of gun-related injuries and deaths, according to an impassioned panel of experts discussing gun violence and the impact on children here at the American Public Health Association (APHA) 2015 Annual Meeting.

"One in five deaths in young people ages 15 to 29 are from firearms — a stunning number," said panel member Eric Fleegler, MD, MPH, a pediatric emergency medicine physician from Boston Children's Hospital.

"If these were deaths due to cancer, we would find this outrageous," he pointed out.

On average, every day in the United States there are 31 homicides, 55 suicides, and two unintentional shooting deaths that involve guns, and children and teenagers are often the ones who are shot, according to statistics published on the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence website.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/854866