The nonpartisan Aspen Health Strategy Group (AHSG), an initiative of the Aspen Institute, released a new report that examines the need to reduce firearm injury and proposes opportunities for health systems to play a role in developing comprehensive solutions. Reducing the Health Harms of Firearm Violence was produced through a year-long, in-depth study and the consensus of 19 senior leaders in the public and private sectors. The report advances “Five Big Ideas” to reduce the health harms associated with firearms:
- The health sector should lead in efforts to reduce the harms of firearm injury.
- The right to keep and bear arms should be understood to encompass responsibilities that promote firearm safety.
- Firearms should be less readily available to people at risk of self-harm or harming others.
- Models that reduce levels of community violence should be supported and expanded.
- The nation should close the information gaps that impede our ability to reduce firearm injury.
President of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Victor J. Dzau is a member of the AHSG and participated in the development of the report. The AHSG is co-chaired by former Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and former U.S. Senator William Frist. Among the AHSG members who participated in the report are NAM members Richard Besser (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation), Harvey Fineberg (Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; former NAM president), Helene Gayle (Spelman College), David J. Skorton (Association of American Medical Colleges), and Antonia Villarruel (University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing).
