APA Joins in Call for Funding For Firearms Research

Citing the public health concern presented by firearm violence, APA and five other medical organizations wrote a letter to key members of Congress asking them to include $50 million in funding for research on preventing firearm-related morbidity and mortality in their final appropriations package.

“Federally funded public health research has played a significant role in addressing other public health crises such as youth smoking and motor vehicle crashes,” wrote APA and its five partner organizations: the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American College of Physicians, and the American Osteopathic Association.

“We need to apply the same rigorous scientific approach to reducing injuries and deaths associated with firearms,” the letter continued. Known as the Group of Six, the organizations represent over 590,000 frontline physicians and medical students.

The organizations applauded the House for including $50 million for firearm-related, public health research in its appropriations legislation but asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-New York), and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) to also include the funding in any final appropriations package.

Over 39,000 people died in 2017 due to firearm-related injuries, according to the letter. Two-thirds of gun-related deaths are suicide deaths.

“The United States is one of the only countries in the world with a rising rate of suicide,” said APA President Bruce Schwartz, M.D. “Congress must act decisively to reverse this trend.”

“Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death overall in the United States and the second leading cause of death for young adults,” said APA CEO and Medical Director Saul Levin, M.D., M.P.A. “We need to dedicate research dollars to achieve a better understanding of this epidemic and prevent firearm-associated deaths.”

A study published in Health Affairs in October analyzed the federal research dollars devoted to the leading causes of death for children and adolescents from 2008 to 2017. Cancer, the third-leading cause, received $335 million a year, while motor vehicle crashes, the number one cause, received $88 million. Though firearm injury is the second leading cause of death in this age group, it received only $12 million a year, “averaging $597 in research dollars per death,” the study found.

“Pediatric firearm injury prevention is substantially underfunded in relation to the magnitude of the public health problem,” wrote lead author Rebecca Cunningham, M.D., a professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Michigan School of Medicine, and colleagues. “According to our analysis, federal funding for this leading cause of pediatric mortality is 3.3% of what is needed for it to be commensurate with the funding for other common causes of pediatric death.”

The Group of Six letter pointed out that both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health are well placed to conduct research on firearm mortality. With $50 million, researchers at the agencies “could conduct 10 to 20 new, large, multiyear studies each year,” the groups wrote.

“With this research,” they continued, “we will be able to better understand and quantify the scope, root causes, and impact of gun violence and identify opportunities to reduce injuries and fatalities.” ■