This weekend’s tragedy in Allen, Texas, has become the new normal for us. Nine dead. Seven wounded. In fact, there have been more than 200 mass shootings in the United States this year, including the one in Monterey Park, the deadliest attack since the Uvalde massacre in May 2022.
That means there have been more shootings than days so far this year and more shootings than at this point in any year since at least 2013. Last year, the country reached 200 mass shootings on May 15, according to the Archive.
There is no question that gun violence is a national tragedy and a public health crisis, and we need to do more collectively. Our hearts break for the victims as we continue reaching out to first responders, from trauma and emergency room physicians who face these tragedies daily to the local medical society leadership to offer any support. I’m including a clip from Dr. Jason Smith, chief medical officer, University of Louisville Health, who spoke immediately after the shooting at the Old National Bank:
LACMA continues working with like-minded organizations to educate the physician community about preventing gun violence. Our initiative, Project See Change, was designed to be a non-political platform to share information, data, and resources. Link to the site: https://www.projectseechange.org/
We’ve also partnered with LA Care Health Plan to support our respective organizational efforts to curb gun violence, promote safe gun storage and educate the healthcare community and patients about reducing firearm-related injury and death. Here is the link to the May 11th webinar.
I encourage our members to share ideas that could make a difference.
Omer Deen, MD, FACG, AGAF
President, Los Angeles County Medical Association
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