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| Health - Reuters - updated 6:06 PM ET Jun 20 |
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New AMA President Takes on Gun LobbyCHICAGO (Reuters Health) - The new president of the American MedicalAssociation says it is time to use science to attack the ``uniquely American epidemic'' of gun violence. In an unusual move Dr. Richard Corlin abandoned the usual language of an inaugural address by an AMA president and instead talked about his secretary who was shot and killed by random gunfire. ``Trish had done nothing wrong. Some might say she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I don't buy into that. Here was a woman where she should be--leavinga relative's home--when she was gunned down,'' said Corlin. Corlin said the CDC used to collect data about gun violence but ``Congress took away its funding, thanks to heavy lobbying by the anti-gun control groups.'' He said the gun lobby ''doesn't want gun violence addressed as a public health issue.'' Corlin contrasted the ``number shame'' about gun violence to the public outcry that accompanies other safety issues. For example, ``31,000 Americans were killed by guns in 1998. Ten children are killed every day. Can you imagine the public outcry if 10 children were killed every day by defective car seats? Or undercooked hamburgers?'' Although Corlin is critical of the gun lobby, he said he wouldn't allow the AMA's mission to be co-opted by ``politics of the right or the left.'' He said he isn't asking for gun control but rather scientific, epidemiological studies of gun violence. He likened his proposed campaign to car safety campaigns that added seatbelts, better bumpers and better headlights but ''didn't confiscate any cars.'' But while Corlin said he wants physicians to attack gun violence the same way other epidemics are attacked, he said he isn't asking American physicians to ask their patients if they own guns. Several medical groups, including the American College of Physicians/American Society of Internal Medicine (ACP/ASIM), urge physicians to ask about gun ownership as part of a taking a health history. If the patient owns a gun, the physician is asked to discuss gun safety. Corlin, a Santa Monica, California gastroenterologist, is a member of the ACP/ASIM. In an interview with Reuters Health Corlin said he does not ask his patients about gun ownership. He also said that he does not own a gun. Dr. C. William Schwab, a professor of surgery at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, has published gun violence studies and Corlin invited Schwab to Chicago to attend the inauguration ceremony. Schwab said he thinks physicians should ask about guns ``in the same way that we ask about alcohol, smoking and drugs, which are also health risks.''
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