A SECOND OPINION
This space is for our physician members to speak their minds freely on both medical or non-medical issues of the day and respond to the opinions of others . The GLMS Editorial Board reserves the right to choose what will be published . Please note that the views expressed in A Second Opinion or any other article in this publication are not those of the Greater Louisville Medical Society or Louisville Medicine .
Legislative Inaction on Gun Violence Endangers Our Children
by GORDON R TOBIN , MD
The surge of gun violence and mass shootings sweeping our nation has engulfed our children and has become the leading cause of death for children and adolescents . Within the past ten years , homicides in ages 1-19 years , and suicides in ages 10-19 years ( both primarily from guns ) became the number-one cause of American youth deaths , replacing motor vehicle deaths , the leading cause over the previous half-century . 1-4 In the past five years , gun deaths of youth have risen over 50 % to an all-time high ( Fig . 1 ). 5
Despite these grim revelations , there has been no action from our legislature to reduce the death toll . This contrasts sharply with past responses to public health threats to our youth . The poliomyelitis epidemic of the mid-20th century brought strong local , state , federal and volunteer remedies , which fully eradicated the threat by the end of the century . Automobile deaths brought strong late- 20 th century efforts to deploy child car seat , safety belt and car-safety engineering , which had reduced children ’ s deaths by half at the last accounting , between 2000 and 2010 .
The Kentucky legislature has not only declined to pass gun violence protection laws , but it has banned local communities ( KRS 65.870 ) from enacting such laws to protect their own communities . Moreover , it has blocked enforcement of federal gun violence control
Fig . 1 – Gun deaths among US children under 18 years old .
laws , by passing 2023 SB 153 , the so-called “ Second Amendment Sanctuary ” law . Shouldn ’ t sanctuary for our children from mass shootings and gun violence be the highest priority of our elected representatives ? There are no meaningful explanations for state or federal legislative failure to address mass shootings and gun violence , unless our elected representatives have chosen warped
28 LOUISVILLE MEDICINE