PHI Joins Leading Orgs to Call for Legislative Solutions to Gun Violence
2018
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On February 22, PHI joined 75 organizations who signed on to two letters to the House and Senate urging Congress to find a bipartisan path forward for comprehensive legislative solutions to firearm-related injuries and fatalities.
Read the full text of the letter to the house below, or click to view the PDFs.
Click the image to share on Facebook, and send a tweet: I stand with @PHIdotorg & other leading health orgs calling for legislative solutions to #GunViolence: http://bit.ly/NoMoreGunViolence
February 22, 2018
U.S. House
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Representative:
The undersigned 75 national medical, health, public health, and research organizations write to urge you – again - to find a bipartisan path forward for comprehensive legislative solutions to firearm-related injuries and fatalities.
Many of our groups previously wrote to you after massacres in Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs. We write to you now because on Feb. 14th, 17 children and adults at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, lost their lives at the hands of an individual with an assault weapon. Over and over again, such mass shootings are the tragic inflection points that exemplify the daily toll that gun violence takes on the lives of Americans. In 2016, there were over 38,000 U.S. firearm-related fatalities.i It is critical that we address gun violence as the significant public health threat that it is, so that we can enact policies that significantly reduce firearm-related morbidity and mortality.
Policymakers have an opportunity to respond to this public health challenge with bipartisan solutions that reduce injuries and fatalities associated with firearms. Federal policy should address gun violence with the same dedication applied to other successful public health initiatives over the past 25 years, such as immunizations, public sanitation, and motor vehicle safety. Reducing injury and mortality through research and evidence-based prevention and intervention strategies has been proven to improve health, safety, and life expectancy.
Strengthening firearm background checks and supporting funding for federal research and public health surveillance on firearm-related injuries and fatalities would provide meaningful progress in achieving a public health solution for this issue. We urge you to find a bipartisan path forward to enact commonsense solutions that address the public health threat of firearm-related injuries and fatalities. Our organizations stand ready to work with you to support that critical effort. Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
2020 Mom
Academic Pediatric Association
American Academy of Family Physicians
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Art Therapy Association
American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work
American Association of Colleges of Nursing
American Board of Pediatrics
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
American College of Physicians
American College of Preventive
American Counseling Association
American Medical Association
American Medical Women's Association
American Nurses Association
American Osteopathic Association
American Pediatric Society
American Pediatric Surgical Association
American Psychiatric Association
American Psychoanalytic Association
American Psychological Association
American Public Health Association
American Society of Nuclear Cardiology
Association for Ambulatory Behavioral Healthcare
Association of American Medical Colleges
Association of Black Cardiologists
Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs
Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairs
Association of Reproductive Health Professionals
Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health
Association of State and Territorial Health Officials
Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses
Big Cities Health Coalition
Child Injury Prevention Alliance
Children’s Defense Fund
Children's Health Fund
Clinical Social Work Association
Commissioned Officers Association of the U.S. Public Health Service, Inc. (COA)
Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists
Council on Social Work Education
Doctors for America
First Focus
Futures Without Violence
GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBT Equality
Healthy Teen Network
International Association of Forensic Nurses
National Alliance to Advance Adolescent Health
National Association for Children’s Behavioral Health
National Association of Community Health Centers
National Association of County and City Health Officials
National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners
National Association of School Nurses
National Association of Social Workers
National Association of State EMS Officials
National Black Nurses Association
National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence
National Hispanic Medical Association
National Network of Public Health Institutes
National Partnership for Women & Families
National Physicians Alliance
National Register of Health Service Psychologists National Women's Health Network
North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition
Pediatric Policy Council
Prevention Institute
Public Health Institute
Safe States Alliance
School-Based Health Alliance
Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine
Society for Pediatric Research
Society for Public Health Education
Society of General Internal Medicine
Trailhead Institute for Public Health Innovation
Trust for America’s Health
Urgent Care Association of America