Violence and Tragedy

Over the last few weeks, there have been several appalling and unbelievable acts of violence. Incidents like Orlando, Dallas, Baton Rouge, and Falcon Heights have become terrifyingly common. Our emotional responses to them are becoming muted. Our communities are battered. Our values are becoming fractured. Our nation struggles to understand race, sexual orientation, poverty, law enforcement, protest, and anger.

I think it is a medical epidemic. There are outbreaks of violence; each act of violence can infect others to crave retribution. Each act of violence decimates a community. The physical, mental, and emotional scars persist. Physicians, who care for the health of a community and its constituents, ought to respond. We care for those who are victims of child abuse or domestic violence or elder abuse. This kind of violence is not so far off.

In 2011, a Florida law stated that medical professionals should refrain from asking about firearms and not put such information in the medical chart unless it is relevant to the patient's medical care, the patient's safety, or the safety of others. There is no doubt in my mind from what has happened in the past few weeks that this information is entirely relevant to the safety of our communities. We ought to know. We should also know the resources out there to mitigate the risk of gun violence. We ought to educate, support reform, and be role-models to avoid such tragedy. The world cannot go on like this.