The Trauma Prevention Coalition (TPC) — a group of 11 professional trauma organizations — has released a joint statement outlining recommendations for improving firearm safety and reducing firearm violence in the U.S.
The recommendations cover a range of legislative, research, public health, gun industry and hospital-based initiatives. The aim is to lay the fundamental groundwork for a comprehensive approach to addressing the firearm injury crisis.
“The increase in firearm-related deaths, mass shootings and violence in our communities threatens to make it impossible for people (especially children) to feel safe, grow and thrive,” according to the TPC statement.
The TPC’s specific recommendations are:
- Require formal gun safety training for all new gun owners.
- Require National Instant Criminal Background (NICS) check for all purchases and transfers of firearms, mandatory waiting periods, and red flag laws.
- Require safe storage of firearms, promote the distribution of firearm safety devices and firearm buyback programs.
- Promote the development of firearm technology that would significantly reduce the risk of self-harm, prevent unintentional discharge, and prevent unintended use by someone other than the firearm owner.
- Support firearm safety legislation at the federal and state levels, including raising the age for the purchase of high-capacity, magazine-fed, semi-automatic rifles.
- Support a formal reclassification of firearms within the National Firearms Act (NFA) regulations with special attention to reclassifying high-capacity, magazine-fed, semi- automatic rifles either as Class III or as a new class with focused regulation under the NFA.
- Promote and support public health, trauma services, and health system investments in marginalized communities of color with the goal to remediate inequities in social determinants of health and injury.
- Appropriate federal, state, and local funding for non-partisan firearm injury and violence prevention/intervention research at a level commensurate with the burden of the disease, without restriction. The research agenda should broadly address firearm safety (including safe storage and safe use), violence intervention and prevention, serious mental illness, firearm violence, and healthcare worker safety.
- Develop and implement standards for Trauma Informed Care in all trauma centers and hospitals.
- Fund the development of evidence-based community-affiliated, trauma centers and hospital-based violence intervention programs.
- Promote “Stop the Bleed” education and state legislation to place bleeding control kits in public locations to save the lives of those severely bleeding.
- According to TPC chair Deborah Kuhls, MD, FACS, preparing the joint statement involved months of meetings and careful consideration of all perspectives.
“I believe there is strength in our joining voices in focusing attention on this serious public health emergency facing our nation,” Dr. Kuhls said.
The TPC combines the resources of major professional organizations that address the acute healthcare needs of the injured to promote collaborative efforts and develop effective strategies targeting injury and violence prevention while minimizing redundancy.
The member organizations that have signed the statement are the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, the American College of Surgeons – Committee on Trauma, the American Trauma Society, the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma, the Pediatric Trauma Society, the Society of Trauma Nurses, the Trauma Center Association of America, the Injury Free Coalition for Kids, the Safe States Alliance, ThinkFirst and The Health Alliance for Violence Intervention.
The American Trauma Society serves as the administrative home of the Trauma Prevention Coalition.