#ThisIsOurLane: Incorporating Gun Violence Prevention into Clinical Care

Abstract

Purpose of Review: This article reviews the medical community’s evolving perspective on its role in gun violence prevention efforts, particularly evaluating the evidence for and potential impact of patient education and firearm safety counseling. Recent Findings: Growing numbers of physicians and professional medical societies recognize gun violence as a public health crisis and are increasingly supporting a more active role for the profession to address it. In spite of this urging, relatively few physicians routinely address firearm safety with their patients, in part driven by a lack of standardized education about how to incorporate gun violence prevention into clinical care. Summary: Clinicians have a unique opportunity to prevent firearm-related injuries and death by performing firearm safety screening and violence prevention counseling at the bedside. With growing evidence for the effectiveness of such counseling and increasing number of widely available resources, clinicians across medical disciplines are well positioned to address this unmet need.