Firearm Injury Prevention: 2018 Pediatric Surgery Practice Gap #5
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Topic Overview
Key Takeaways
- Pediatric surgeons should routinely screen patients for firearm presence and safe storage practices at home during clinical encounters.
- Child access prevention laws that hold adults criminally liable for negligent firearm storage are most effective at reducing pediatric injuries.
- Firearm injury prevention is a clinical safety issue, not a political one—focus advocacy on child protection rather than Second Amendment debates.
- APSA is prioritizing firearm safety advocacy as a core organizational mission to reduce preventable pediatric injuries and deaths.
- Surgeons in states without child access prevention laws should actively advocate for legislative change to protect children from firearm injuries.
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Transcript
Join us as we continue our review of the top 10 practice gaps of 2018, first presented at last year's update course by Apza's Practice Development Committee. Number five. Alex. So, number five is another passionate area of mine. It was uh firearm injury prevention. Um, and just kind of emphasizing that pediatric surgeons need to kind of take an active role in identifying risk factors for this, asking patients if they have a firearm at home, if they keep it stored safely. And then also for areas of patient advocacy. So, states that don't have child access prevention laws, like Ohio, maybe pediatric surgeons should be advocating and trying to push for something like that. But the most effective state laws in reducing pediatric firearm injuries are those that hold adult adults criminally liable for negligently storing firearms. Yeah, that was a great, um, topic because we don't usually talk about advocacy and now this is definitely making its way. And it's and the approach is not one around Second Amendment or politics or anything else. It's about children being shot and children being safe. And and even at Apza, this is becoming a real big presence of Apza's advocacy.