[ST-12] Statement on Firearm Injuries

[by the American College of Surgeons]

The following statement on firearm injuries was developed by the Committee on Trauma of the American College of Surgeons and approved by the College's Board of Regents at its February 2000 meeting. This statement replaces the Statement on Gun Control developed in 1991.

Recognizing the impact of firearm injuries on American society and this countryÿs health care system, the American College of Surgeons supports efforts:

(1) To develop and promote programs directed at the prevention of firearm injuries by improving safe and knowledgeable transport, storage and use of firearms.

(2) To support educational programs about conflict management and the avoidance of violence.

(3) To enhance the responsible sale, manufacture and distribution of firearms, and to restrict civilian access to those designed primarily for interpersonal violence.

(4) To make firearm injury a reportable condition.

(5) To establish a national database on firearm injuries.

(6) To enforce and extend existing limits on ownership of firearms by criminals.

(7) To require a mandatory prison sentence by federal and state courts when a criminal has used firearms during the perpetration of a crime.

Statements

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Reprinted from Bulletin of the American College of Surgeons
Vol. 85, No. 4, Page 24, April 2000

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by the American College of Surgeons, Chicago, IL 60611-3211