On Tuesday, The American Medical Association (AMA) responded to the worst shooting in the United States, by calling gun violence in the country a public health concern and crisis. The association plans to push Congress to solve the issue.

In 2014 a total of 33,636 deaths were attributed to firearms, according to the Centers for Disease and Prevention. The AMA recently assured that this year has already registered 6,000 deaths from gun violence.

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As a response, to the massacre in Orlando the AMA has declared gun violence a public health crisis. Image courtesy of Nation Of Change

Earlier this week a 29-year-old gunman, slaughter 50 people after entering a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. The massacre has gained the world and local attention, sparking the debate about strict gun control and backup checks on guns in the market.

As a response, to the massacre in Orlando the AMA has declared gun violence a public health crisis. Hoping for a public intervention and solution to this matter, that concerns the whole nation.

The association, that works by representing doctors beliefs and concerns to federal officials, planned on its Annual Meeting of its House of Delegates to push Congress and eliminate a legislation that has been around for 20 years, prohibiting the CDC to research on gun violence.

Gun violence, a public concern

In the first days of the current year, President Barack Obama announced the bloody year the US lived in 2015, assuring the deaths of thousands were caused by gun violence.

According to the statistics published by Obama’s administration, a total of 372 mass shootings happened in the country in 2015. 475 people died in this fires and, 1,870 were severely wounded.

In the same year, 64 school shooting were registered according to a report made by BBC news; this numbers included happenings were guns were present, but no one was hurt.

In a total of all gun shootings registered in 2015, a total of 13,286 people died to firearms in the United States leaving 26,819 injured. These numbers do not include the incidents that happened at the end of the year.

“With approximately 30,000 men, women and children dying each year at the barrel of a gun in elementary schools, movie theaters, workplaces, houses of worship and on live television, the United States faces a public health crisis to gun violence. Even as America faces a crisis unrivaled in any other developed country, the Congress prohibits the CDC from conducting the very research that would help us understand the problems associated with gun violence” said Steven J. Stack the president of the AMA.

There have been several attempts and policies emitted by the AMA to increase the safety of firearms in the country and people who make a use of them.  Especially a system that supports a strict enforcement of a federal and state legislation that ensures gun safety.

Scandals about gun possession in the country have risen in the past year, and the Obama administration has also endured in a long campaign to control firearms in the country. More are the cases of kids accidentally shooting their parents with a gun, and massive shootings continue to be a regular in the country.

Source: AMA