When COVID-19 emerged early last year in the United States, we as a nation were ill-prepared to manage the virus and the ensuing pandemic that has claimed more than half a million lives in this country. As a critical care nurse in one of the largest health systems in Philadelphia, my colleagues and I were thrust into caring for patients sick with a virus we knew very little about. Unlike the COVID-19 pandemic, in which science is still evolving, our nation continues to ignore the proven science behind another lethal and ongoing epidemic: gun violence.
Recent events in Colorado and Atlanta have brought the devastating effects of gun violence back to the forefront of national media, which has been largely dominated by politics and COVID-19 in the last year. The science behind gun violence is unequivocal and has demonstrated the public health threat that firearms pose. While continued research on firearms and their effects will bolster our understanding of the problem, sufficient proof, from organizations like the CDC and the Pew Research Center, already exists. Here in Philadelphia, last year witnessed a 40 percent increase in people being shot, with over 2,000 residents harmed by firearm violence and over 500 people lost to homicide. This increase can be attributed to many factors, including COVID-19, which has led to increased intentional violent injuries, mostly from firearms.
Firearms and firearm violence are polarizing topics that our country historically has grappled with despite the litany of empirical evidence presented in scientific literature illustrating their destruction. It is alarming that our nation has leaders who deliberately fail to recognize the dangers of firearms in our society. We’ve seen members of Congress use their vote to block efforts to expand background checks on the same day in which two students were killed by gunfire in a California high school, and use their voice to mock victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida. Despite this blatant disregard for lives ruined by guns, I believe our country is now well-positioned to make traction on passing meaningful legislation. The convening of the 117th Congress coupled with the NRA’s Chapter 11 filing signal an opportunity to make real legislative changes that could begin to eliminate the terror that firearms cause.
Nurses need to be part of a multifaceted approach to decreasing the firearm injuries and traumas we see with our patients. This approach begins with nurses looking past partisan politics, and in doing so, to begin to see that attainable solutions are within reach. Nurses, who constitute the largest group of healthcare professionals, need to call upon our nation’s leaders to prioritize legislation allowing for the creation of formidable laws to curb both the violence and needless deaths resulting from the prevalence of firearms in our society.
- Why the Gun Violence Epidemic Needs Nurses - May 6, 2021