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Should Physicians Treat Gun Violence as a Public Health Threat?

The recent mass shooting in Las Vegas was the largest in modern US history, with 58 people dead and more than 500 injured. This horrific event has once again highlighted gun violence and ignited a debate about whether physicians should wade into the national discussion on gun control.
On the one hand, a group of editors, publishing in the Annals of Internal Medicine, JAMA, the New England Journal of Medicine, and PLOS Medicine, shared a list of ways in which healthcare professionals can use their skills and voices to address gun violence as a public health threat.   
On the other hand, a suggestion in a recent Medscape essay suggesting that physicians should not own guns drew more than 300 hostile comments from Medscape readers, many of them angrily stressing that gun ownership is a Second Amendment right.

Question 1 of 5

Do you believe gun violence is a public health threat?

Question 2 of 5

Have you ever discussed gun safety with your patients?

Question 3 of 5

Do you think physicians have a responsibility to discuss gun safety with their patients?

Question 4 of 5

How prepared are you to discuss gun safety with patients?

Question 5 of 5

Do you own any guns?

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