More than two dozen organizations join call by internists and others for policies to reduce firearm injuries and deaths in U.S.

More than two dozen organizations have joined the American College of Physicians (ACP), seven other national health professional organizations, and the American Bar Association in calling for policies to help mitigate the rate of firearm injuries and deaths in the United States. The organizations endorsed an article, Firearm-Related Injury and Death in the United States: A Call to Action from 8 Health Professional Organizations and the American Bar Association, published earlier in Annals of Internal Medicine.

"We advocated measures to reduce the health and public health consequences of firearms, and the American Bar Association confirmed that the recommended measures do not conflict with the Second Amendment or previous rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court," noted ACP Executive Vice President and CEO Steven E. Weinberger, MD, FACP. "We have subsequently invited a wide variety of organizations to endorse the document. The following organizations are officially endorsing the article and its recommendations."

• American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• American Academy of Neurology
• American College of Chest Physicians
• American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics
• American College of Nurse-Midwives
• American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• American Medical Student Association
• American Psychological Association
• American Thoracic Society
• Association of Chiefs and Leaders of General Internal Medicine
• Brady Campaign and Center to Prevent Gun Violence
• Children's Defense Fund
• Institute for Patient- and Family-Centered Care
• National Board of Medical Examiners
• National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
• National Medical Association
• National Partnership for Women & Families
• National Physicians Alliance
• National Urban League
• Prevention Institute
• Sandy Hook Promise
• Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine
• Society of Critical Care Medicine
• Society of General Internal Medicine
• The Society of Thoracic Surgeons
• Violence Policy Center

Additional organizations have been invited to endorse the paper and will be added as they sign on.

Some of the organizations that endorsed the paper today added these comments:

With a mission to protect the health of the public through state of the art assessment of healthcare professionals, the National Board of Medical Examiners said that it "supports this initiative because it addresses a major public health crisis in our country. We endorse these efforts because they are so clearly targeted on protecting the health of the public."

"The American Psychological Association endorses this Call to Action with the hope that it will echo through the halls of Congress and galvanize our nation to reduce the incidence of firearm-related injury and death," said Barry Anton, PhD, ABPP, president of the American Psychological Association. "We stand with our professional colleagues in advocating for a multi-dimensional, public health approach to reduce the tragic loss of life due to firearms, which includes a robust line of research to more fully understand this serious problem, increased access to mental health services, particularly for suicide prevention, and efforts to avoid stigmatizing those with mental disorders."

"We at Brady believe that it is vitally important for diverse organizations to find ways to work together, as a greater whole, to frame and address gun violence and gun safety as the urgent issue of public health and safety that it is, driven only by a common goal of preventing the greatest number of gun deaths and injuries," was the reaction from the Brady Campaign and Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

"This article is an inspiring and momentous step in that direction and we are very pleased to endorse it."

"The National Medical Association endorses this Call to Action with the anticipation that it will stimulate recognition and development of a strategic plan and tactical processes to reduce the incidence and mortality rates of firearm-related injuries," said Edith P. Mitchell, MD, FACP, president-elect of the National Medical Association. "We must eradicate this useless cause of suffering and tragic loss of lives. A comprehensive program of research to determine the etiology of and contributing factors of the associated violence, as well as development of effective prevention strategies."