Why Do Physicians Continue To Support The NRA?

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              In 1927 a Belgian medievalist, Henri Pirenne, created
an academic firestorm with the publication of an article which argued that the
shift of Western Civilization away from the Mediterranean (Greece – Rome) to
its modern locus in Northern Europe was due to the 7th-Century
invasion by Islam into North Africa and Spain. His study provoked the
publication of endless responses, revisions and refutations that probably
accounted for an unknown number of academic promotions, tenures and teaching
careers. When the whole controversy finally died down fifty years after it
began, the center of Western Civilization was still located alongside the Île de France.

              I am reminded of Pirenne’s thesis whenever yet another pronouncement
is issued calling for more research into the violence caused by guns, even
though the formative
research
by Art Kellerman and Fred Rivara linking higher rates of suicide and homicide
to guns in the home was published more than twenty-five years ago.

              The demand for more research has grown exponentially
since Sandy Hook, just as the whole gun-control movement has spread outward following
that terrible event. In April, 2015 eight national medical organizations published
a ‘Call for Action,’ which demanded more “research to support strategies for
reducing firearm-related injuries and deaths.” You can download this paper
right here.

              Pursuant to that manifesto, three of the organizational
signatories have produced their own calls for more research, agendas which
allegedly reflect the various specialties which they bring to the issue of
guns. I refer to pronouncements made by the American College of Emergency
Physicians (ACEP) in 2016, the
American College of Physicians (ACP)
in 2018 and the American College of Surgeons (ACS), also in 2018.  You can
download all three papers right here: ACEP
– ACP– ACS.  Feel free to download the Kellerman-Rivara
articles here
and here.

              According to the ACEP, “high-quality firearm injury prevention research is needed.” Says the ACP, “More research is needed on firearm violence and on intervention and prevention strategies to reduce injuries caused by firearms.” Announces the ACS, “We recommend that research for firearm injury and firearm injury prevention must be federally funded at a level commensurate with the burden of the disease without restriction.”

              So there appears to be a consensus emerging within the
medical community that a behavior which results in injuries to more than
125,000 Americans each year is a serious problem and that more research will
help develop effective interventions to bring that number down.

              With all due respect to the 39 signatories of these
pronouncements who hold MD degrees,
what they have published are road maps to help them design and produce more
studies to enhance their research careers. Thank you very much.

              The behavior which creates gun injuries is well known –
pick up a loaded gun, aim it at yourself or someone else, pull the trigger and an
injury occurs. It’s guaranteed to work every, single time. If any one of the 39
medical researchers believes this research to be inadequate, come to my gun
shop, we’ll go downstairs to my range, I’ll give you a loaded gun, then you
pull the trigger and let’s test the result. Sorry folks, this outcome is
validated at least 350 times in America every, single day.

              Incidentally, these three medical groups – ACEP, ACS, ACP – donated nearly
$250,000 to the 2016-2018 Congressional campaigns of the worst, most aggressive
members of the House GOP caucus whose votes have been primarily responsible for
the lack of gun-research funding which these organizations all claim to be
their most worrisome concern. Have any of these researchers who are so
committed to saving lives said one word about this egregious state of affairs?
Not one peep. And these researchers want their concerns about gun violence to
be taken seriously by anyone other than themselves? Are they serious? You can
download this wall of shame right
here. You can also
read a new JAMA article
which goes in greater detail about medical support for the NRA.

               The research on
gun violence is clear: get rid of the guns. I say this as a bone-fide gun nut,
not just as some doctor who happens to own or not own a few guns.