Pragmatic Firearm Advocacy for Pediatricians.

Abstract

The review article “Pediatric Firearm-Related Injuries in the United States” in this issue of Hospital Pediatrics serves as a timely reminder for all health care providers that we cannot afford to be silent about gun violence. An average of 7 children and teens ages 1 to 19 are killed by guns every day in the United States.1 Pediatric hospitalists are on the front lines of this public health crisis. To uphold our duty as pediatricians to protect and improve the health of children, we must educate ourselves about gun violence and become vocal advocates for sensible, effective solutions. Although firearm safety has been highly politicized, we as physicians know that this is first and foremost a public health issue. Many analogies can be drawn from history. When motor vehicle collisions became a leading cause of mortality, auto manufacturers blamed collisions on the drivers. When evidence emerged regarding the health threat of tobacco, tobacco companies denied the association of cigarette smoke with disease. After hard-fought battles with these industries, regulations were put in place that dramatically decreased morbidity and mortality from these public health threats.2 It is clearly time to do the same for firearms. As with automobile and tobacco regulations, our advocacy must be a pragmatic one. Pediatricians must understand patient and family values and concerns regarding gun ownership. Pediatricians must be able to communicate the risks of firearm ownership to families and children, address controversies and myths, and understand which interventions have been demonstrated by existing data to be most effective in decreasing injury and death. We must understand federal law and the laws in states where we practice. In this commentary, we present a guideline for pragmatic firearm advocacy for pediatricians: key firearm facts that all pediatricians should know, common myths about firearms, interventions that have …