A background check for guns is a public health issue
One of the most vivid memories I have as a pediatrician-in-training is of a backpack. A 16-year-old boy was rushed to an immediate surgery following multiple gunshots to the chest. As he was transferred to the operating room from the trauma bay, I saw the dark red stains of blood on his navy-blue backpack spilling open with notebooks and homework assignments. He was just walking home from school. The next morning, I saw his girlfriend curled up tightly in the crook of his arm, as if she would never let go. She expressed gratitude that he was going to live, unlike many of their community members who have been through this before.
When I chose to pursue a career in medicine, these are not the stories I thought I’d be sharing. And yet they have become a routine part of what it means to practice medicine in the United States. It doesn’t have to be that way.
On average, approximately 100 Americans are shot and killed every day, and almost triple that number are shot and injured. Our society has been inundated with mass shooting after mass shooting – names like Sandy Hook, Parkland, Orlando, Aurora, Charleston, Columbine, and more will forever be burned into our lexicon as synonymous with horrendous pain and tragedy. There were 3,410 children killed from guns in 2017. As a health professional caring for children, I am trained to pursue prevention as the first course of treatment for my patients. Gun violence is no different.
In January, members of the U.S. House of Representatives introduced the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019, calling for universal background checks for firearm purchases. This law would close many of the loopholes surrounding background checks and ensure that guns do not fall into the hands of criminals. Representing the American Academy of Pediatrics, I had the privilege of standing on the stage behind members of Congress, including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who was shot in the head at an event in Tucson 8 years ago to the day of the bill’s introduction. The room was full of survivors and family members of those killed in gun violence in an invigorating display of unity, and it showed that we cannot let this opportunity pass.
While living in North Carolina, I became aware this state is not immune to the crisis. The sound of evening gunshots plague many of the state’s urban areas. With more than 1,400 gun violence deaths in 2016, more people died from guns in North Carolina than any of the previous 35 years. Young people of color are disproportionately affected. At a time when the number of murders declined in most large American cities, both Raleigh and Charlotte saw steep increases.
As a medical professional, I feel it is my duty to speak up for common-sense policies that will protect children. I cannot and will not separate what I’ve seen from what I advocate for. As doctors, we apply firm pressure against cold blood as it shoots out a severed artery. We run through life-support algorithms in our heads amidst the cries of a loved one whose hands inseparably grip a pale body. We tell a mother that her child is dead because bullets pierced his body and left it lifeless.
Gun violence can and must be prevented, and it is a public health issue that pediatricians will never stop advocating for. The Bipartisan Background Checks Act is a needed first step and a promising chance for true change. North Carolina’s senators and representatives cannot let this opportunity go and should advance this bipartisan bill without delay.
Ryan Lion, who holds a master’s degree in global public health from Duke University, is completing medical school in Washington, DC.