Doctors group calls for firearm makers to pay costs of gun violence

The American Medical Association is calling for firearms manufacturers to be financially responsible for the health and economic costs of gun violence in the United States, adding to the push from the Left to treat gun violence as a public health issue.Members of the AMA House of Delegates adopted the new position of holding firearm makers financially accountable for deaths and injuries this week during their November legislative and advocacy meeting.The meeting and new position come as the members of the newly elected Democratic majorities in the House and Senate have expressed sympathy for treating gun-related deaths and injuries as a public health matter. Intentional and unintentional firearm injuries are among the leading causes of death for minors, killing an estimated 4,000 children and teenagers in 2022, according to a Surgeon General’s report on gun violence from the Biden administration.The AMA, the largest physician advocacy organization in the U.S., has long held that gun violence is a public health crisis, but holding gun makers responsible is a new position for the group.Dr. Melissa Garretson, a member of the AMA board of trustees, called gun violence “a public health crisis whose heartbreaking consequences are borne by patients, families, communities and taxpayers.”“Firearm manufacturers should share responsibility for those costs,” Garretson said in a press release. “Requiring them to contribute can help fund evidence-based prevention efforts and encourage greater investment in firearm safety.”According to the anti-gun violence advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, firearm-related injuries and deaths cost taxpayers roughly $12.6 billion annually in medical treatment, mental health services, criminal justice costs, and Medicaid and disability insurance payments.Supporters of the measure in the AMA House of Delegates meeting this week likened firearm maker restitution payments to the financial liability judgments against large tobacco and opioid makers for the public harm caused by smoking and addiction, respectively.Funds raised through such payments, according to the organization’s press release, could go toward supporting evidence-based violence prevention efforts and services for communities disproportionately affected by gun violence.The new AMA policy position comes as there may be an increased appetite for appropriating funds for gun violence public health research in the Democratic Congress next year.Sen.-elect Annie Andrews (D-SC), the Senate’s first female physician, ran on a platform of treating gun violence as a public health crisis. Andrews, a pediatrician, supports universal background checks and mandatory safe firearm storage laws and credits her positions to her experience treating children who unintentionally show themselves.On the campaign trail, Andrews distinguished public health strategies for reducing gun violence from policies that would infringe upon the Second Amendment right to gun ownership.SOUTH CAROLINA’S NEW DEMOCRATIC SENATOR SUPPORTS GUN CONTROL ON PUBLIC HEALTH GROUNDSAndrews was backed by the anti-gun violence group Moms Demand Action, for which Andrews has been a volunteer since 2018.Moms Demand Action also backed a slew of victorious House candidates, including Reps.-elect Christina Bohannan (D-IA), Pia Dandiya (D-FL), Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-MI), Lindsay James (D-IA), Sarah Trone Garriott (D-IA), JoAnna Mendoza (D-AZ), Christina Hines (D-MI), Lucy McBath (D-GA), and Paige Cognetti (D-GA).