Gun Violence - A Call For Physician Activism: Lessons From The Struggle to Ban Weapons of Mass Destruction

O February 9,1993, a lone gunman carrying an arsenal of concealed weapons severely wounded three physicians in the walk-in emergency area of the County-University of Southern California (USC) Medical Center. The sudden, inexplicable ferocity of such a crime would have shocked the U.S. public sensibility 30 years ago. Now it is merely a footnote in the swelling tide of communal violence that increasingly engulfs U.S. society. While there are multiple factors that contribute to this level of violence, one factor seems to us foremost; the unrestricted proliferation of firearms. Left unchecked, this proliferation has created conditions that lead to mass destruction. The extent of the proliferation is evident in the wrenching details of every evening newscast. At present, there are approximately 200 million firearms in the United States, of which more than 60 million are handguns [1,2]. The precipitous rise in handgun availability became evident in the mid-1960s when the number available for sale increased by 50% in just one year [1]. As the number of firearms has risen (Fig 1), so has the associated carnage. Between 1950 and 1980, the number of annual firearm-related deaths per base population in the U.S. increased by nearly 250% [3]. By 1980, nearly 60% of all homicides and suicides were caused by firearms [3].