Brady: United Against Gun Violence’s Post

Transcript

A first of its kind advisory issue today from the surgeon general. He's declaring gun violence an urgent public health crisis. This is, of course, the nation's top Dr. Vivek Murthy, who is now warning that gun violence is so pervasive that it demands the collective commitment of the nation to stop it. That's how he puts it. Here he is earlier talking to CNN's John Berman. Over the last decade or two, this problem has been worsening, and we have now reached the point where gun violence is the leading cause of death among kids and teens. The leading cause of death. That is something that we should never take as the new normal. There's nothing normal about that. But I also want people to understand through this advisory that the impact of gun violence is far more far reaching than we may think. 6 in 10 Americans are worried about a loved one being shot. Half of our kids are worried about a shooting in their school. And joining us now is Doctor Joseph Sakran. He is a trauma surgeon, a shooting survivor and also the chief medical officer for Brady United Against Gun Violence. Doctor, what do you make about this advisory? Yeah, Thanks so much for having me. Look, this advisory by the certain general declaring gun violence a public health crisis is historic and something that, frankly, healthcare professionals and the gun violence prevention community have been calling on for many years. And I think what it does is that it underscores the urgent need to address the devastating impact of gun violence on communities across the nation. As we just heard in your clip. From the surgeon General the leading cause of death in children and adolescents is gun violence think about that it's it's not motor vehicle crashes, it's not cancer, it's not poisoning, it's gun related injury. And so we have a responsibility to declare this a public health crisis, which many of us have been calling on doctor in 2022 more than 48,000 people died from firearms that includes homicides, suicides, and unintentional. Deaths as well. Connect the dots for us how this advisory might help bring down those numbers. Yeah. So as you point out, we continue to see devastating numbers both in those killed and non fatal injuries. When you think about this advisory, right, it's another step in the right direction and it does a couple important things. It acknowledges the severity, right? It recognizes that gun violence is a major threat to the health and safety of the public, akin to other crises like smoking, drug use, infectious diseases. It also emphasizes the need for rigorous data collection. And research to better understand root causes and the impact on communities. It allows policymakers to call for the development and implementation of evidence based programs and solutions that will allow us to reduce these gun related injuries. And it raises public awareness about this issue, encouraging communities to engage in discussions and take collective action to address this crisis. So firearm violence as you mentioned. Became the leading cause of death among children and adolescents in 2020. It is so concerning. I think this is something that when parents talk amongst themselves, they find themselves discussing this constantly because the polls back that up as well. How concerned they are about this. And then last week you had the Supreme Court deciding that a bump stock ban is unconstitutional. Do you see a way out of this in a big way and and not just a marginal kind of tinkering around? The edges kind of way. What is that? Yeah, Brianna, it's such an important point. And I, and I just want to stress that, you know, as a trauma surgeon and survivor, right, someone who's working at Johns Hopkins in East Baltimore, seeing these injuries and deaths on a daily basis, these are not just numbers and statistics, right? These are moms and dads. They're brothers and sisters. And the impact is not just on the patients that we are seeing, but on the families and the communities. I think what we have to realize is that. Tackling this public health problem requires more than one solution. There is no one solution that's going to solve this. It's going to require really a multifaceted approach that cuts across different sectors and allows us to really come together to provide the type of comprehensive solution that's required to make community safer. And I think we sometimes forget the fact that as Americans, we have a lot more in common than we have that divides us and that. Includes responsible gun owners who in fact, you know, are on board for the majority of common sense gun legislation and programs that will help us ensure that our children are not being gunned down on our streets. A doctor you you mentioned a a comprehensive approach to try to reduce the number of gun deaths. I'm wondering what can be done to improve access to mental healthcare and, and how that factors in. To this multifaceted issue. Yeah. I mean, look, that that's of course a a critical point. And when you think about, you know, all the different angles and specifically around mental health care, we know that when you look at the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that President Biden signed, it was the first legislation nearly 30 years. And part of that legislation included an investment of $140 million, right, and primary healthcare workforce that was supporting right clinicians. To be able to better care for patients with mental and behavioral health issues, right? That is just one example of, of many things that have been done by the administration, but also by health systems to try to really tackle this from the different angles, right? And that's the, that's the key is if you're talking about, for example, suicide or unintentional injuries or violence within cities, all of those different components of gun related injury may require a variety of solutions, right, to ensure that. For providing the best medical treatment, which is prevention. Doctor Joseph Sakran, thank you so much for sharing your perspective with us. We appreciate you. Thanks so much for having me, Boris and Brianna.