WHEREAS:

Each year in the U.S., the number of suicides by firearms averages over 21,000 and homicides by firearms averages over 11,000; and

WHEREAS:

It doesn't matter whether we believe that guns kill people or that people kill people with guns, the result is the same: a public health crisis; and

WHEREAS:

Like traffic fatalities, sexually transmitted disease, smoking, polio and TB, gun violence may be preventable; and

WHEREAS:

Firearm violence has been recently recognized as a public health crisis by several professional medical associations such as those representing Family Practitioners, Pediatricians, Emergency Physicians, ObGyns, Surgeons and Psychiatrists; and

WHEREAS:

These groups have published reasonable recommendations to improve gun safety, promote conversations between doctors and their patients, ban assault weapons, advance background checks and promote research into gun violence; and

WHEREAS:

There is no harm in the study of the association among gun ownership, gun laws and gun deaths; and

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:

That AFSCME, its councils and local affiliates, sponsor, support and advance legislation to promote research relating to gun violence as a public health problem.

SUBMITTED BY: Zegory Williams, Executive Director and Delegate

Stuart A. Bussey, MD, JD, President and Delegate

L. Lee Nelson, MD, Delegate

AFSCME Local 206, Union of American Physicians and Dentists

California