Doctors for America (DFA) stands united with physicians, physician organizations, students, and gun violence prevention organizations throughout America by drawing a line in the sand against gun violence. The opposition has tried to sow the seeds of compliancy and numbness with the American public and that these senseless murders are now part of our culture. They are WRONG. As we have witnessed throughout our country’s history (Civil Rights, Women’s Issues, Environment Protection, etc.) it is the precious youth of our nation that ignites, galvanizes, and sustains these social justice battles. DFA’s 18,000 strong physicians throughout America are committed to stand united and help to end these near daily slaughters of our fellow Americans.
This first ACTION Alert will be part of a series of coordinated actions that will be initiating. The time is now, and we MUST not back down. Below is our statement on one piece of puzzle to put an end to the senseless murders and move our nation into the civilized world as it pertains to gun violence prevention.
Please take action on the asks below. Together, the DFA physician community has and will continue make a difference.
DOCTORS FOR AMERICA – PUBLIC STATEMENT
“Yet again, lives young and old are viciously taken by an all-too-permissive culture of gun violence in America. We stand in white coats - emergency room doctors, trauma surgeons, nurses, primary care physicians - enraged by the violence we see on the news and agonized by what we have witnessed first-hand. We watch as those sworn to represent us fling thoughts and prayers across social media while continuously cloaking themselves in the money provided by the gun lobby to insulate and deflect.
We represent those who spend each day safeguarding the lives and the health of people across the nation in calling for a renewed approach to combating gun violence as a public health emergency. We commend HHS Secretary Alex Azar for his statement in favor of increased research into gun violence prevention. There are indeed so many questions that need nonpartisan, data-driven answers: about the causes and correlates of gun violence; about how gun violence spreads in communities; about which legislative, regulatory, and community-based approaches have been effective, or not, in combating it; about which technologies and safety measures are worth investment and implementation.
However, it will take more than just an informal commitment to thaw the chilling effect that a loose interpretation of the Dickey Amendment has had on federally-sponsored research into gun violence. It will take active and ongoing support immune to political winds. It will take a commitment to restored and increased funding of federal agencies so that they may undertake, and bolster projects aimed both directly and indirectly at answering these questions.
Those who would represent such common-sense efforts as a threat to fundamental liberties are presenting the American people, our patients, with a lethal false choice. It must stop. Congress must repeal the Dickey amendment. We call on Congress to #EndTheBan, to restore and supplement funding to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other federal agencies that will support research into gun violence. We call on those who represent us and our patients to take the first step away from absolutism and cynicism, toward courage, toward stopping this carnage, toward healing our collective gaping wound. This time can be different. There does not have to be a next time."
TAKE ACTION:
Sign on to our statement as an individual or as an organization. Within this sign-on link if you can suggest an organization and a contact person that you can forward this email to, we would deeply appreciate it. Feel free to forward this to email list and social media network;
DFA’s White Coats Gun Violence Prevention Working Group has been engage in this issue since our inception in 2009. It includes nationally recognized physicians, academics, and activists. If you have time and energy to participate in this working group, please click here.
Your time and resources are vitally input in this effort. We have set a goal of $15,000 to raise by March 14th to help in this effort. Please consider contributing and becoming a supportive physician to DFA today. Please click here for more information.