When a federal judge ruled in June that California's ban on assault rifles was unconstitutional, he compared the gun to a pocketknife. "Like the Swiss Army knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment," wrote U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez.
An AR-15 is a weapon of war, designed to kill an enemy. To equate an assault weapon with a pocketknife is totally wrong: There is no comparison.
For health care providers who treat and care for its victims, gun violence is a public health crisis that demands preventive action. We must change the way gun violence is viewed.
Last year, 20,000 people were killed in gun-related incidents across the country. Mass shootings receive the most publicity, but in major cities, gunshot victims come to the hospital every day. Imagine if 40 large passenger planes crashed every year, killing 20,000 people. We would ground the planes, identify the causes and find solutions.
We do not have this urgency when it comes to gun violence. We must.
As someone who has worked for more than two decades treating gunshot victims, including those of the 2018 mass shooting at YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, let me say what I know from personal experience: The extent of injury created by an
