NMA Calls for Firearm Violence as a Public Health Emergency

Ten people, including a police officer, were killed Monday, March 22, 2021 after a gunman opened fire in a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, devastating families and an entire community. The fatal shooting at the Boulder grocery store comes less than seven days after the shootings in the Atlanta area where 6 of the 8 people murdered were Asian women. The firearm violence in our communities must be taken seriously by policy makers.

Over the past year, federal and local governments have been able to build a prevention, intervention, response and communication infrastructure to strategically respond to the COVID-19 threat. All the great minds and resources of our government, health care institutions and public health providers have come together to save lives. This has been the truest example of a comprehensive public health response to an emerging threat. It is important for us, as a nation, to activate our entire public health system to prevent the morbidity and mortality of our communities from Firearm Violence. This means equitable access to education, technology, economics, housing, healthcare and criminal justice. We must reimagine how we serve communities in need.

It is for these reasons that the National Medical Association is calling for the declaration of a Public Health Emergency in cities faced with the epidemic of Firearm Violence. We are asking the federal government to support this declaration in the form of a congressionally-funded resource package. Yes, there is an ongoing, acute COVID-19 pandemic that already disproportionately affects Black, Indigenous and other people of color. At the same time, we cannot ignore the chronic epidemic of Firearm Violence in this country. These recent deaths could have been prevented. Our children are traumatized. We need action NOW.

The NMA is the largest and oldest national organization representing African American physicians and their patients in the United States. As the collective voice of African American physicians and the leading force for parity and justice in medicine; the NMA has long asserted police use of excessive force as a public health issue and has published both a position statement on police use of excessive force and a position paper on urban violence in minority communities. The organization is committed to addressing issues of social determinants, structural violence and systemic racism that fosters an environment that leads to the disproportionate policing of communities of color.