The American Medical Association (AMA) endorsed a slate of gun control measures, including a ban on assault-type weapons. The nation’s leading organization of medical professionals described gun violence as a “public health crisis.”
At its annual meeting in Chicago, the organization voted to adopt nearly a dozen new policies focused on gun control, including a ban on “all assault-style weapons, bump stocks and related devices, high-capacity magazines and armor piercing bullets.”
The policies also include taking guns away from those considered at risk of committing violence, expanding domestic violence restraining orders to include dating partners, recognizing the role of firearms in suicides and opposing President Donald Trump’s recent suggestion that schoolteachers should be armed.
The new measures were passed 446-99.
“People are dying of gun violence in our homes, churches, schools, on street corners and at public gatherings and it’s important that lawmakers, policy leaders and advocates on all sides seek common ground to address this public health crisis,” Dr. David O. Barbe, AMA’s immediate past president, said in a statement. “In emergency rooms across the country, the carnage of gun violence has become a too routine experience. … It doesn’t have to be this way, and we urge lawmakers to act.”
