The largest medical organization in the United States, the American Medical Association, passed a historic resolution last night in response to the weekend’s mass shooting. After years of tiptoeing around the topic of gun control, AMA leaders voted to officially call gun violence a public health issue — and respond accordingly. That means flexing the organization’s powerful political muscle on Capitol Hill to refocus federal funds toward studying gun violence.
To see this through, however, Congress would need to lift a 20-year-old ban that blocks the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from funding any research related to gun violence. But the AMA, with one of the largest political lobbying budgets of any organization in the U.S., appears ready to fight.
“Even as America faces a crisis unrivaled in any other developed country, the Congress prohibits the CDC from conducting the very research that would help us understand the problems associated with gun violence and determine how to reduce the high rate of firearm-related deaths and injuries,” said AMA President Dr. Steven Stack, in a written statement.
“An epidemiological analysis of gun violence is vital so physicians and other health providers, law enforcement and society at large may be able to prevent injury, death and other harms to society resulting from firearms,” he added.
Remember how I said that we were reaching a breaking point over gun deaths?
Yeah well I might have underestimated that a little.
This battle needs to be fought on many fronts. The first responders need to speak up and give a voice to the devastation from gun violence. In particular law enforcement needs to make clear that when they are initially outgunned by domestic terrorists, things never end well.
ReplyDeleteHalle-fucking-lujah!!!!
ReplyDeleteexcellent!
ReplyDeleteI hope other countries' equivalent of the CDC post a travel ban to the US. It is dangerous to your health to travel here;
What is more prevalent? Babies born worldwide this year with Zika virus encephalopathy or shooting deaths in the US?
Or, identify all of the legislators who accepted money from The National Rifle Association and,uh, hang 'em.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/nra-donations/
Delete6:03 Perusing that list made me feel ill.
DeleteDidn't mean to make you sick 8:27 but it really is disgusting, isn't it?
DeleteNow that we have some itty bitty glimmer of hope from some in our gvt to start the ball rolling, we as citizens need to do our part-- post this list EVERYWHERE!
Anonymous9:20 AM -
DeleteI posted it on Twitter which is pretty much 'everywhere'. ;-)
Not so fast, Gryphen.
ReplyDeleteSure the AMA is the most powerful MEDICAL professional and lobbying organization, the NRA is still the most powerful lobbying group overall.
Remember, it's no accident that Jeebus gave us the Second Amendment when He wrote down the constitution and carried it all the way to Washington, DC in 1776, but there's nothing in that document about health care. One is a right and the other is a helpful resource for rich people.
The right to use firearms freely - 'liberally', if you will - is the most important god-given right we have in Amerika.
Sure, you can disagree with a confused, angry, closeted gey man killing scores of nightclub patrons with a high-powered assault rifle, but you can never deny his right to have that gun.
This is not the time to enact common-sense gun laws. This is the time for prayer for the victims and their loved ones. I'm sure we can all agree that when you take away a mass killer's gun, the terrorists win.
Do you really WANT the terrorists to win, Gryphen? No. Of course you don't.
Like the NRA always says: "PEW!! PEW!! PEW!!"
Using firearms freely is not a GOD given right. The Constitution gives us our rights. And of course we can outlaw a maniac from buying certain weapons that slaughter patrons at a gay bar or innocent 1st graders! It is ridiculous to think a person with terrorist sympathies who can't get on an airplane when tagged on the NO FLY list, can easily buy a gun! The government can make cars safer, surely they can do the same for its citizens.
DeleteSome do not see the irony
Delete"but you can never deny his right to have that gun".
DeleteExactly where in the 2nd amendment does it say that ordinary citizens -- the public -- have the right to carry WEAPONS of WAR? Even the family of the man who invented this type of gun say it was never intended to be available to the public, that it was to be for only the military/law enforcement. THAT gun is the issue, not all guns.
5:47 ~ Bravo.
DeleteYou elegantly snarked all the talking points!
Holy Cow, 6:16 and 6:36. Did you really miss the irony, sarcasm, and satire that was BRILLIANTLY used by 5:47 to shred all of the normal arguments used by the pro-gun rally? It must be very hard to be so dang literal....
DeleteP.s. 5:47, is that you, Beldar?
That was good, 5:47am! Bravo!
Delete@10:02
DeleteYeah, Anonymous - if that's really your name which I highly doubt - it's Beldar.
Only Beldar would say something boneheaded like "This is not the time to enact common-sense gun laws."
Well, only Beldar and 90% of all Republicans.
PEW!! PEW!! PEW!!! kind of gave me a clue, LOL
DeleteMy cousin worked in the ER at Cook County Hospital in Chicago and then Stroger Hospital for many years. She worked on the weekends where she and other doctors saw the devastation done to victims AND their families, from a medical as well as a social aspects. She has been an opponent of guns and the gun lobby for as long as I can remember. I am so happy to see the medical community taking a role in trying to change the gun insanity on our streets.
ReplyDeleteOT: Death is death>
ReplyDeletehttp://www.salon.com/2016/06/17/were_officially_living_in_a_new_world_antarctic_co2_hits_high_unseen_in_4_million_years_partner/
Not even allowing federal funding to do research on gun violence is completely insane. Just shows how far the NRA will go to keep their precious weapons.
ReplyDeleteSounds like the gunfight at the OK corral. Does the AMA have bigger guns (a more persuasive voice) than the NRA? Will the AMA now begin paying electeds for their compliance the way the NRA does??
ReplyDeleteI don't think the NRA will run nation-wide pro-assault rifle ads; however, i think the AMA will run the SHIT out of some ANTI-gun ads, starting with assault rifles.
ReplyDeleteMy heart and money are on the AMA.
Perfect.... Doctors, who kill more people than guns, are out to get rid of the competition.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't physicians who shot up that nightclub in Orlando. Get real.
Delete