Clinical tools for preventing firearm injury. The Bullet Points Project was created to be a resource for clinicians and medical educators who are committed to firearm injury prevention.
Firearm violence is a major public health problem in the United States. The US suicide rate has been climbing for the last 15 years, with firearms consistently accounting for over half of those deaths.1 The daily toll of firearm homicides continues, causing nearly 15,000 deaths annually, and disproportionately affecting young men of color from disadvantaged communities.
And clinicians overwhelmingly believe that preventing firearm injury is within their scope of practice. Many major health professional societies, including the American Medical Association, the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Emergency Physicians, the American College of Surgeons, the American Public Health Association, and the American Psychiatric Association, recently have published or renewed statements on the medical community’s role in reducing firearm injury.2 For example, in 2019, the consensus statement from the inaugural Medical Summit on Firearm Injury Prevention included that “healthcare providers should be encouraged to counsel patients and families about firearm safety and safe storage,” noting that “educational and research efforts are needed to support appropriate culturally competent messaging.”
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