Pediatricians take on the gun lobby

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:15:00 +0000

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has renewed efforts to pressure Congress to pass gun control, calling reform an issue of public health, not politics.

The measures the group is advocating for include an assault weapon ban, a ban on high-capacity magazines, increased background checks and mandatory waiting periods for all firearm purchases.

The doctors are hoping to bring a public health perspective and peer-reviewed data to a gun debate marred by ideology and conducted along political fault lines: “What we need is a call to action, to really look at how we can change public policy that is not often affected by data,” Dr. Danielle Laraque, who heads the pediatrics department at Maimonides Infants and Children’s Hospital in Brooklyn, told a meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in Washington, D.C.

“Where there are more guns in the United States, there are more people dying,” added Dr. Matthew Miller of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center. “There are more women dying, there are more men dying, and there are more children dying. We are talking about a lot of people who are dying when they live in places with a lot of guns and homes with guns.”

Gun lobby: Guns make women safer

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 21:09:00 +0000

Just when we thought the gun lobby’s approach to ending gun violence couldn’t get any more ridiculous, last week we were introduced to Gayle Trotter. A fellow at the conservative Independent Women's Forum, Trotter unveiled to the Senate Judiciary Committee the latest canard that curbing access to guns would create an "undue burden" for women who would "choose" to defend themselves from violence. Her assertions are illogical at best and downright dangerous at worst. Two aspects of her testimony are particularly troubling: the appropriation and misapplication of pro-choice language to describe the need for unfettered access to weapons and the notion that guns make the world a safer place for women.

Salon.com > Gun Lobby

Pediatricians take on the gun lobby

Gun lobby: Guns make women safer