The #1 Killer of American Kids: A Public Health Crisis of Gun Violence

What if the leading cause of death for children in America wasn’t cancer or car accidents — but something we rarely talk about? In this urgent episode of Wellness Connection MD, Dr. Jim McMinn exposes the public‑health crisis taking more young lives than any other: firearm injuries, now responsible for “about 4000 child and adolescent deaths each year” and “roughly sixty kids shot every single day.”

Episode Summary Dr. McMinn brings the full weight of his ER experience to this powerful conversation about gun violence, child safety, trauma medicine, and public‑health prevention. Through evidence‑based data, gripping clinical stories, and clear-eyed analysis, he explains why the U.S. is an outlier, how firearm saturation fuels preventable tragedies, and what common‑sense steps can save lives without taking guns away from responsible owners.

This episode covers:

• The rise of firearm injuries as the #1 cause of child death
• Why America’s gun violence rates dwarf other wealthy nations
• The devastating impact of high‑velocity assault‑style rifles
• Real ER stories that reveal the human cost behind the statistics
• Practical, non‑political public‑health solutions that work

If you care about child health, community safety, trauma care, gun violence prevention, or evidence‑based wellness, this is essential listening.

Transcript

The Shocking Number One Killer

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello, I'm Dr. Jim McMahon and welcome to the Wellness Connection MD Podcast, the evidence-based podcast. Most people and even most doctors are unaware that gunshots are the number one cause of death in children and adolescents. For too long, we have largely tiptoed around this issue. And I feel that we cannot be serious about healthcare if we're not willing to talk about the number one cause of death in children and adolescents. After 20 years of working in the emergency room and seeing these senseless tragedies up close to personal, I feel that it is time we shine a bright light on this senseless tragedy and put our heads together from a public health perspective and find some solutions that save lives. In this podcast, we'll talk about some common sense steps that we can take to keep kids safer without vilifying gun orders or taking away their gun rights. So if you care about children and about community safety, then this is our lane. We need to raise our voices and save the lives of children.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Welcome to the Wellness Connection MD Podcast with Dr. McMinn and Coach Lindsay, where we bring you the latest up-to-date evidence-based information on a wide variety of health and wellness topics, along with practical take-home solutions. Dr. McMinn is an integrated functional entity. Lindsay Matthews is a registered nurse and IIN certified health coach. Together, our goal is to help you optimize your health and wellness. Mind, body, and spirit. To see a list of all of our podcasts, visit.com. And to stay up to date on the latest topics, be sure to subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast player so that you'll be notified when future episodes come out. The discussions continue this podcast for educational purposes only. And diagnose your treatment disease. Do not apply any of this information without approval from your personal doctor. And now, on to the show with Dr. McMinn and Coach Lindsay.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Hello, I'm Dr. Jim McMinn, and welcome to the Wellness Connection MD Podcast, the evidence-based podcast with honest, commercial-free, unbiased, and up-to-date information about functional, integrative, lifestyle, preventive, and wellness medicine. We're glad you could join us today. Coach Lindsey has the day off today. She's bringing another bundle of joy into this world, and we'll miss her, but the show must go on. Today we're going to talk about a subject that I think is not discussed enough in medicine or in society in general. And yet it is the number one cause of death in children in America, ages 1 to 19. Any guesses what this might be? Unfortunately, most people and even most medical professionals don't know the answer to that question. And the thing that kills more children in America is injuries from firearms. That's right, the number of kids in America being killed by guns has reached crisis proportions. In my opinion, the medical community has been too quiet on this issue for too long, while the gun lobby has been screaming at the top of their lungs. It's past time that we bring a common sense voice of reason to this debate on behalf of past, present, future, and potential victims of gun violence. And on behalf of communities where people no longer feel safe, going to malls, churches, theaters, nightclubs, parades, workplaces, or any public gathering without worrying about becoming another tragic and senseless victim of gun violence. And let me state it right from the get-go that the purpose of this conversation is not to bash gun owners or to take away their guns. I am looking at this strictly from a public health point of view. In all fairness, I'm not looking at it from a Second Amendment point of view. I'll let some other podcaster discuss that on his or her own show. And speaking of amendments, the comments on this show are simply my own First Amendment opinions. However, if you've been listening to this show long enough, you'll know that I always try to back up my opinion with solid evidence. And at the end of the day, you'll have to decide how you feel about this ongoing crisis. But hopefully by shedding some light on the issue, I can at least raise awareness and get some people thinking about making some much needed changes both as an individual and as a society. So let's dive right into

Why Healthcare Must Speak Up

SPEAKER_01 3:55

the numbers, because no matter how you spin it, the numbers don't lie. About 4,000 children and adolescents die from firearm injuries each year in America, including from homicide, suicide, and unintentional shootings. When it comes to nonfatal gunshot wounds, it is estimated that around 17,000 children and teens are wounded annually. For decades, motor vehicle accidents were the number one cause of death in children. But as a society, we didn't just throw up our hands and give up on this issue. Instead, collectively, we put our heads together and we outsmarted the situation and applied some common sense measures such as seat belts, airbags, and child safety seats. And as a result, the number of car crash fatalities has dropped dramatically in children. And we did this without vilifying car owners, and we didn't go around taking away anybody's car. Now I must admit that I kind of missed the good old days when a whole bunch of kids and the family dog could ride halfway across the state in the back of an old pickup truck with the wind in our hair. It was kind of fun, but on the other hand, it's amazing that we ever survived those times. Then when you look at the dramatic drop-in death in children due to motor vehicle accidents, the public health safety measures have certainly been worth it. But as of 2020, pediatric deaths from motor vehicle accidents has been replaced by a new number one cause of death, which has topped the charts, and that is death from firearm injuries. Just to put this in perspective, as recent as 2023, more children died from firearm injuries than from heart disease, cancer, diabetes, birth defects, and drowning combined. Wow, now that should definitely get our attention. It seems to me that if any other cause of death was number one, we would have billboards, public service announcements, and our legislatures would enact strict laws to protect us. For instance, with car safety issues, we have clicket or ticket laws to get people to wear seatbelts. We also have laws making it illegal to drive while holding a cell phone. I frequently hear public service announcements on the radio about wearing your seatbelt and not texting while driving, but I don't think I've ever heard a public service announcement about keeping your guns locked up in a safe place. Not once. Go figure. It's really hard to believe that the number one cause of death doesn't get more public attention. Also for years I took my children to their pediatrician, and I don't ever recall being asked about guns in the home, either in person or by any intake form. Seems like right there we're missing an opportunity to save a life. Isn't that what pediatricians are supposed to do? Save lives? Now maybe things have changed since the days when I took my kids into their pediatrician. For the sake of our children, I certainly hope that they have. For some reason this issue has been like a third rail, just untouchable. While the gun lobby has been extremely present and vocal, there has been an eerie silence by just about everybody involved, including the medical community and others who care about children who should be speaking out. It's time to raise our voices on this critical issue for the sake of our children and our society. One unfortunate situation that inspired me to be more thoughtful about this issue was a string of mass shootings back around 2018. We had one right here in my home city of Birmingham, Alabama. After taking care of some of these victims, some prominent emergency physicians and trauma surgeons commented on the terrible damage that is done to the body with modern high powered weapons. Shortly thereafter, the NRA tweeted, quote, self-important anti-gun doctors, end quote, should stay in their lane regarding gun policy. Then one of the brave trauma surgeons responded, quote, I am a trauma surgeon and a gun owner. I took an oath, I own this lane, end quote. I was really proud of him, and that certainly caught my attention. He didn't let the NRA intimidate him like they do almost all of our politicians. He rightfully took ownership for this issue, and I guess to be a trauma surgeon, you gotta have a little bit of Hutzbah. And that's kind of where I'm coming from with this podcast today. We should no longer hide the body count and ignore the number one cause of death in children. Hopes and prayers in the aftermath of such devastation are welcomed and perhaps sincere, but they are not enough. We need collective action, attacking this issue like we did with car accident deaths, with common sense steps that save lives. In my view, every doctor, every parent, every person who cares about children should get on board with this movement. This is our lane. We need to wrestle it back and own it. And by the way, we are talking about this today from the point of view of this being the number one cause of death in children, but gun violence affects all ages. I must admit, I'm not a child, but I too would prefer not to be the victim of gun violence. So this issue goes way beyond childhood. This applies to everybody who wants to be safe. Years ago, I lived in Boston, and I was taking the tea home from work one day, and the tea being Boston's antiquated version of light rail. So I got on the rail car and there's this guy who came on after me carrying a samurai sword. Hmm. My wheels started turning in my head, and I thought, well, he's probably just a nice guy who just was into swords, but who knows? And then my mind began to imagine an article in the Boston paper the next day about an entire rail car of people slaughtered by a samurai swordsman. And since I was standing close to him, I figured I'd be the first one with my head lopped off. So I thought about it for a minute and I thought, well, what the heck? I'll just get off the car and I stepped onto the next car behind us. Fortunately, I didn't hear anything in the news the next day about a mass killing with a samurai sword. But these days, with open carry laws, we're surrounded by all sorts of folks, packing heat, with much more deadly weapons than a samurai sword. And I suppose we're just forced to trust that these people have honorable intentions, that they'll never have a bad day. But I must admit, it makes me feel a little bit uneasy. I don't know these people. I don't know what their intentions are. At the end of the day, we all want to feel safe. If you just happen to live in a community where you don't have to be concerned about being shot, then count yourself lucky. Because for so many Americans, every time they send their kids to school, every time they gather in church, or go to a shopping mall, they're putting their life and the life of their children at risk. I'm just saying, I think the whole situation has put communities on edge. Our innocence is gone, and we live in a whole new and uncomfortable world forced upon us by the gun lobby and politicians. Now as a former ER doctor who has been on the front lines of trauma, I've seen this up close. So this issue is deeply personal to me. Picture this, a

ER Reality And A Life Saved

SPEAKER_01 10:16

true story. One night I was at work in the emergency department, and the overhead speaker blurted out the words that every clinician knows by heart, code blue front lobby. And when you hear those words over the intercom, it immediately gets your knickers in a twist. It means that somebody's crashing, and if they don't get urgent attention right now, they're probably gonna die. So I ran down to the front lobby of the hospital with the entire code team of talented medical professionals in tow, pushing a gurney in a code cart. And yes, it's just like you see on TV, except in this particular case, the doctor, i.e. me, was not nearly as handsome as the doctors on TV, and there was not nearly as much romance going on in the real life ER as there is on TV. But otherwise it was exactly the same. When we got to the lobby, just outside, lying on the asphalt, slumped against the concrete pillar, was a young man barely old enough to vote. He had been shot in the chest, and his shirt was soaked with blood, his breathing was shallow, he was barely conscious, his eyes were wide with that look of fear that you never forget, the look of someone who knows he's about to die. We loaded him up on the gurney, raced back to the ER, and got to work. And I'm happy to report that thanks to these wonderful medical professionals I work with, that night we saved a life. But surviving death is not the same thing as being whole. I wasn't part of his follow-up care, but I've done this long enough to know what was probably ahead of him. More surgeries, more pain, scars, nightmares, and maybe a little bit of PTSD thrown in. Who knows, maybe a wheelchair, or a colossomy bag that he'll wear the rest of his life. It happens time and time again, way too often. One more young life permanently altered, one more family changed forever. But he was a lucky one. He lived. And for every one of him, we have others who don't make it. An empty seat at the supper table, a co-worker or friend who doesn't show up to work the next day, old pictures and the memory of a dearly beloved that creates emptiness in our hearts. The thoughts of what might have been in his life had it not been for this senseless, preventable incident that snuffed out a life. An incident which often starts with some trivial disagreement over a minor concern. For instance, we later heard from the police what happened that resulted in this particular shooting. It was a car chase going bad. Somebody just simply cut somebody off in traffic, and the next thing you know, there's a high speed car chase that resulted in a moment when anger, fear, pride, and maybe a little bit of toxic masculinity all got mixed up in the presence of a loaded gun. How tragic, how senseless, but how real and too often. So next time somebody cuts you off in traffic, you might want to have some second thoughts about riding their bumper or giving them the middle finger. This might be the time to turn the other cheek and choose to live for another day.

The Scale And The US Outlier

SPEAKER_01 13:04

Now this was just one incident, but let's take a look at the scale of the problem. What do the numbers show? Exactly what are we dealing with here? But I'll warn you, the facts are hard to hear. Let's start with one number, sixty. In recent years in this country, roughly sixty children and teenagers are shot every single day. Of these, thirteen of these kids die, while the others escape death but have various degrees of injuries. These days I exercise at a gym, which also happens to be a rehab facility. And I see these children every single time I go in, many of them in their wheelchairs, and they will never walk again due to spinal cord injuries from gunshots. It breaks my heart to see it. But again, they are the lucky ones. They lived. It is worth repeating sixty precious little children victimized by guns every single day. That's like two classrooms of children shot, dead, or wounded before you go to bed every night. And I'm not going to beat around the bush here. Let's be clear, America is an outlier. When you compare us to other wealthy countries like Canada, UK, Germany, Australia, and Japan, the gap is staggering. No other industrialized country comes even close. In the United States, firearms account for roughly one in five deaths among children and teens. And these other peer nations, it's less than one in fifty. So let's once again let's compare that. One in five versus one in fifty. Put it another way, if you take the United States and eleven other large, wealthy countries, and add of all the children and teens killed by guns, America with less than half of the combined population accounts for almost all of these deaths. Often think back to my time in Detroit, where I did my medical residency back in the late eighties. Detroit was regarded by some as the murder capital of America, mainly due to gun violence. And yet, just across the river was a town called Windsor, Canada, where there was very little gun violence. If you look at those two cities on a map, the only thing that separates them is a river. But epidemiologically, they were separated by policy, economic conditions, social investment, different laws, and most importantly, firearm availability. I vividly remember that when I took the tunnel across to Windsor or the bridge from Detroit to Windsor, there was a big sign that said no guns allowed. So again, on one side of the river, staggering rates of gun violence in a city overflowing with guns, and on the other side, almost no gun violence in a city with very few guns. I think you can make that connection. That contrast stayed with me. It taught me that gun violence was not inevitable. It's not genetic, it's not simply human nature. It is produced by policy, culture, and conditions. And these can all be changed. Seems like so many things we talk about on the podcast boil down to that old saying about knowing what I can change and what I cannot change and having the courage to change the things I can. Seems to me like the folks over in Windsor, Canada got it right, while the folks in Detroit and the rest of America didn't. When it comes to the underlying factors that contribute to firearm risk and with the disastrous consequences. And just for the record, the rate of gun violence in Detroit has improved significantly over the years since I lived there, so hats off to the public officials who have made that happen.

Access, Saturation, Simple Math

SPEAKER_01 16:09

What were these factors that contributed to so many firearmed deaths in cities like Detroit? What research points to more than anything else is access to firearms. How many guns are in circulation, and how easy are they to reach in a moment of rage, despair, panic, or impulse, like that car chase I talked about a while ago. So now let me put a number on that term access. Nobody knows the exact figure because the United States doesn't keep a national gun registry, and that's a whole nother story. But the best estimates put the number of civilian owned firearms in this country somewhere north of four hundred million, and closing in rapidly on five hundred million, and that includes about thirty million AR fifteen style military assault rifles. Now let that sink in for a second. There are more guns in America than there are people in America. In fact, it adds up to about two guns for every single adult in America. So we in America account for about four percent of the world's population, and yet we hold almost half of the world's civilian owned guns. No other nation comes close. And it's getting worse. In the United States, we have manufactured approximately ten million guns per year over the last ten years. When it comes to the gun lobby, people talk about the Second Amendment, which is certainly important. However, as they say, follow the money. There's huge money to be made in the firearm business, and eventually much of this money trickles down to our legislators who take that money and then vote against common sense gun regulation, which is contrary to the will of the people, most of whom want gun control. So the gun saturation issue is certainly not going away anytime soon. Now here's the thing about saturation. When you flood an entire society with that many firearms, including high capacity military-style assault rifles, you drastically change the odds of bad things happening. Because human beings are human beings everywhere. Every country has people who get furious, every country has people who hit the wall with despair. Every country has the heartbroken, the humiliated, the unstable, the fearful, the impulsive, the poor, or whatever. The difference is what happens in that terrible moment. In most of the world, a person in a fit of rage just punches the wall or says things they'll regret, or in the worst case scenario, they'll reach for a knife. However, in the US, far too often there's a loaded gun within arm's reach no matter where you go. And when you saturate a country with that much firepower, the grim mathematics are simple. Sooner or later, in a moment of fury or breakdown, someone is going to reach for one of these guns and something bad is going to happen to a loved one, to a stranger, to themselves, or even to an entire crowd of innocent people. It's simple math. It's the law of natural consequences.

Culture, Fear, And The AR-15

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Now you can't have an honest conversation about this without asking a deeper question. Why? Why does America, alone among wealthy nations, have what seems to be a love affair with guns? Well, there's a lot of history there. This country was quite literally born of armed rebellion against an oppressive government. The very first generation of Americans fought a revolution with privately owned muskets. So from our very beginning, the gun has been woven into the national story, not just as a tool but as a symbol of liberty, of independence, of we will not be ruled without consent. And then came the frontier. For generations, much of America was rural and remote. A firearm meant food for the table, and protection when the nearest help was about a day's ride away. The gun became part of self-reliance, part of manhood for many, and part of how families fed and defended themselves. However, just to be fair and honest, guns were not just tools for hunting and self-defense. They were sometimes instruments of oppression and conquest. In the long struggle over the American West, firearms helped tilt the power towards white settlers and the US Army and against Native nations, the original inhabitants who were defending their homelands. Gun ownership is even inscribed in our Constitution, in the Second Amendment, in a way that no other country's founding document does. And that gives gun ownership here a near sacred right that's generally hard for people in other nations to understand. So for millions of Americans, a gun isn't just an object, it's a heritage. It's their father teaching them how to hunt. It's a sense of safety, of competence, of freedom. It's tied up in who they are and what they believe. But here's what's also true. The reason most Americans say they own a gun has shifted dramatically. A generation or two ago, the typical answer was hunting or sport. Today, by a wide margin, the number one reason people give is protection. Roughly seven in ten gun owners now say personal protection is a major reason they own a firearm. And that shift matters because fear sells. A frightened person buys a gun and then often they don't feel quite safe enough, so they buy another gun and something that looks a little bit more capable. They end up going from a 22 pistol to a high capacity military assault rifle. And it begs the question, why does an ordinary civilian citizen feel that they need an assault rifle? A few threads come together here. The first is identity and marketing. The AR-15, which is the most popular assault rifle, has been deliberately sold as America's rifle. It's been wrapped up in the language of patriotism, masculinity, tactical readiness, and preparedness. It's light, modular, customizable, and you can accessorize it endlessly and even turn it into what for all practical purposes, a machine gun designed to mow down large numbers of human beings. For a lot of owners, it's generally a hobby, a point of pride, the way somebody else might love a sports car. But in the hands of a wrong person, it is the most common and most destructive tool used by mass murderers. The second threat is fear and distrust. A segment of these owners believe that they may one day. They need to defend their home against chaos, a riot, a collapse, a break-in by multiple people, or even against the government itself. The rifle becomes insurance against the worst case scenario that they've been told over and over is coming. And the third thread is history and backlash. From 1994 to 2004, this country actually had a reasonable federal ban on many of these weapons. When the ban expired in 2004 and was never renewed, sales didn't just recover, they exploded. Every time a new restriction was even discussed, sales spiked again because people rushed to buy before the door closes. It's ironic, but we have in effect marketed these rifles by threatening to limit them. In fact, firearm sales, including the sales of AR-15 style rifles, rose substantially after Barack Obama was elected in 2008 and after he took office in 2009. This phenomenon became widely known in the firearms industry as the Obama boom. And the number was dramatic. One industry insider estimated that the annual firearm sales grew from 7 million firearms before Obama's election to nearly 17 million by the end of his presidency, with AR-15 style rifles becoming a major driver of industry growth. A trauma surgeon will tell you the truth about these assault rifles. The wound from a high velocity rifle is a different kind of wound. It doesn't just pierce, it shreds. The bullet dumps so much energy into the body that the tissue around it stretches and tears far beyond the path of the round itself. The organ doesn't just get a clean hole, it gets pulverized. And that's the difference between a shooting and a massacre. And let's be honest about how many of these weapons are out there. America is saturated with them. By recent industry and federal estimates, somewhere north of 30 million AR-15 style rifles are in the hands of people from every walk of life. In some states they are barely regulated at all. You can buy one from a private seller with no background check, no questions asked. And do not let anybody tell you that these are just sport or hunting rifles. They are designed from the ground up to deliver rapid, devastating fire against multiple human beings. And that design is exactly what makes them so lethal in the wrong hands. And when a shooting becomes a massacre, the assault rifle is overwhelmingly the weapon of choice. These guns kill a lot of people very quickly, and officers who rush towards the gunfire to help the victims often arrive and find themselves outgunned by the shooter. There are multiple occasions when the rescuer didn't even bother to go in, knowing that they were completely outgunned. And that is why this weapon sits at the very center of our argument about guns, about violence, and about what kind of country we want to be. I've pondered this question for years. Where do we draw the lines in terms of what type of weaponry a private citizen can own? We draw the lines about other dangerous weapons all the time. For instance, a private citizen cannot own a nuclear bomb, thankfully not. Would we let them own a fighter jet loaded with missiles, or a tank, or a rocket propelled grenade launcher, or a bazooka or a hand grenade? I hope not. And yet somehow we accept almost without discussion that some weapons are simply too dangerous in ordinary civilian hands, that the risk to everyone else is just too great. But for instance, civilians can't legally own a belt fed machine gun. With proper modifications, a high capacity AR-15 assault rifle basically becomes a machine gun. Yet anybody can get these without any background check. Go figure. This puts everybody at risk. So the question was never about whether to draw a line. The only real question is where to draw the line. And when I look honestly at a military style assault rifle, I have to ask, which side of that line does it really belong on? So let me tell you plainly where I land, and this is just my humble opinion. As a doctor who went to work every day to heal pain and suffering and to save lives, it is my view that civilians should not be allowed to own these weapons of war. Because without large capacity rapid fire rifles, a large scale massacre becomes vastly harder to commit. The shooter's lethality drops significantly. The seconds it takes to reload becomes the seconds a child uses to run. A teacher uses to lock a door, an officer uses to close the distance, and is no longer outgun by the assailant. Let's take a look at the body count due to these assault rifles, and here are the numbers.

Mass Shootings And Assault Rifles

SPEAKER_01 26:26

In December 2012, Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut, a gunman with an AR-15 assault rifle mowed down twenty first grade innocent children, six and seven years old, as well as their teachers. Hope and prayers were offered. And we chanted never again. But then, in October 2017, in Las Vegas, nearly sixty people were killed and hundreds wounded at an outdoor concert, the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history by a man firing, guess what? A high capacity assault rifle down at a crowd from a hotel window. And again, authorities offered up lots of hopes and prayers, but nobody had the political guts to do anything about it. And again, we chanted never again. In February 2018, Parkland, Florida, Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, seventeen people were killed with what? You guessed it? An AR-15 style rifle. Students and staff mowed down in their own hallways and classrooms. The security guard stood outside and listened to the gunshots and the screams of the children, but never went in, knowing he was totally outgunned. And he did not stand a chance if he went in. More hopes and prayers? But again, no action. In May 2022, Uvaldi, Texas, Rob Elementary School, nineteen children and two teachers murdered in a single classroom by what? An AR-15 style rifle. Children so badly wounded that they could only be identified by their clothing. Almost four hundred law enforcement personnel responded to the call. However, they waited for over an hour before they reached a classroom because they knew they were outgunned by the assailant, as the children lay bleeding to death from their AR-15 induced wounds. Again, lots of hopes and prayers, but no action taken. And here we are four years later, and nobody has been held accountable for this disaster. So these are not freak accidents. They're happening more and more, and they share a pattern a person in crisis and easy access to a weapon built to kill lots of people very quickly. I contend that these weapons of mass destruction are just too easy to obtain. For instance, the shooter at Sandy Hook just picked up his mother's unsecured AR-15. The Parkland shooter purchased his gun legally, even though he had a history of troubling behavior with violent outbursts, threatening, disturbing social media posts, disciplinary problems, and he had made direct threats, including saying he wanted to become a professional school shooter. Yet despite these alarming posts, the dots were never connected to prevent him from purchasing an AR-15. The Las Vegas shooter actually had quite an arsenal of weapons, including multiple AR-15s. He purchased these legally and then modified his AR-15 with what they call a bump stock, which turns it into a machine gun that can make it even a more efficient killing machine. Take away these weapons for mass killing, and I don't think we would have a massacre at Sandy Hook, Uvalde, Parkland, or Las Vegas. At least not nearly on the same scale.

Exports, Policy, And Mental Health Claims

SPEAKER_01 29:22

Now we Americans are a sharing people, but as it turns out, some things are good to share and some things are not. America leads the world not only in gun relating deaths on our own soil, but also in exporting the tools of violence to other nations, whether through regulated sales or the thriving black market. US firearms are playing an outsized role in global bloodshed. Similar to the military industrial complex that Dwight Eisenhower warned us about, which makes unimaginable amounts of money when we engage in armed conflict, the firearms industrial complex likewise is a booming industry, making megabillions of dollars each year in profits, with little liability thanks to laws shielding the gun industry. So the US has become the world's largest exporter of firearms, effectively spreading that violence to other nations. So we're talking about a massive flow of guns heading south into Latin America and across the Atlantic to Europe. Mexico stands out as one of the biggest recipients of U.S. firearms, feeding directly into the intense cartel conflicts plaguing the region. They smuggle in drugs to America and we traffic firearms to them. It's a lose lose. Now on paper, these exports are tightly regulated, but in reality, there is a persistent shadow economy of illicit trafficking running right alongside the legal trade. As a result, in parts of Mexico and some other Latin American countries, heavily armed drug cartels often possess military-style weapons that outgun the local police. These weapons include AR-15s, AK-47s, 50 caliber rifles that can penetrate cars, rocket propelled weapons, explosive drones, improvised armored vehicles, also known as narco tanks, and high-tech military grade communications equipment, much of which comes right from the good old USA. Bottom line is that there is money in spreading guns and death. However, I am a realist, and in this case, the die is cast. We're never going to have a situation where we're going to round up thirty million AR-15s from gun owners, even if we have a buyback program. It's just not going to happen in America. Even though buybacks have worked in other countries like Australia, unfortunately, it's just too much part of our culture. Let's compare our response to gun violence in the United States to similar first world industrialized countries. In nineteen ninety six, Australia suffered a horrific massacre, and within weeks the country led by a conservative government passed sweeping reforms and bought back hundreds of thousands of firearms. And they have not had a mass shooting since on that scale. The UK responded to a school massacre in Dunplane the same year by tightening laws dramatically and once again the same result. So when our congressmen claim that it's a mental health issue, just remember that these countries, after they changed their laws, didn't have fewer mentally ill people, they just had less guns. As a result, a drastic reduction in mass shootings. I'm a physician and I take mental health seriously, and yes, mental health matters. Untreated despair, isolation, hopelessness, bitterness, trauma, and crisis are very real, and we should be investing more in addressing these issues. But, and this is important, we should not just throw up our hands and say it's a mental health issue and then ignore our responsibility for addressing the real root cause, which is easy access and overabundance of firearms. Every wealthy country has mentally ill people, and it's roughly the same rates as ours. If mental illness alone drove these massacres, every developed nation would have a gun violence problem like us, but they don't. We are by far the outlier, and why? The main thing is not the difference in our brains, it's access. Mental health is only a small part of the picture, and it's not an excuse just to throw up our hands and walk away. And at the end of the day, do politicians ever build more mental health centers or improve mental health resources or access? Of course not. All that mental health talk is just a convenient smoke screen to deflect from the real problem. It's a total cop out. And they know it. They talk about mental health issues, they offer hopes and prayers, but they never enact real reform that saves lives. And once again, they're looking out for the rich political donors. But what a huge disservice to the children and families of Uvaldi, of Sandy Hook, and all the other massacres. These families and victims deserve better. So let's talk about some things that actually work to reduce gun injuries and deaths.

What Works: Safety And Prevention

SPEAKER_01 33:44

Let's start with the most important measure which is safe storage. In recent years there have been roughly four hundred documented cases in the US where a child or teen gains access to a firearm and unintentionally shoots themselves or someone else. So the solution is to store firearms locked, unloaded, and separate from the ammunition. A gun safe, a lockbox, a cable lock, something that puts time and distance between the person in crisis and the lethal weapon. And there's another reason why safe storage is a big deal, because one of the hardest truths in the whole conversation is the fact that a large share of gun deaths in this country, including among young people, are suicides. And unfortunately, the suicide rate in America among young people has risen dramatically over the past couple of decades. And this issue is particularly relevant these days, since a 2021 CDC survey revealed that almost a third of U.S. female high school students reported that they had seriously considered attempting suicide during the previous twelve months. Wow, that is both mind boggling and sad. And when one of these kids is in a suicidal crisis, it is often impulsive. The highest risk window may not be days, but it may be minutes. So when you create an even small barrier, a lock, a delay, a separate key, storage outside the home during crisis, you may be creating the exact amount of time needed for a life to be saved. And once again, this issue is very personal to me since I was on the receiving end of these suicide attempts in my ER days. Sadly, some of these kids didn't make it, and in my 20 years of experience in the ER, there was nothing more devastating for me as a physician and for the family, quite frankly, than a child who dies of suicide. It's something you never quite get over. So safe storage is just easy common sense prevention without taking anybody's guns away. And by the way, it's worth noting that the United States has one of the highest suicide rates in the world compared to other developed countries. And we also happen to have the highest saturation of firearms. And there is a well documented association between firearm access and suicide rates. In the US, firearms are used in a large proportion of these suicides, and studies have shown that areas with easier access to guns tend to have the higher overall suicide rates. I'm just saying. Number two on my wish list of public health reforms is background checks and closing the gun loopholes. Think of this like seat belts at the point of sale. The basic idea is simple, before someone gets a gun, we check to see whether they're legally prohibited from having one. Are they a violent felon? A domestic abuser? Someone a court has already flagged as dangerous. Here's what most people don't realize. Federal background checks are only required when you buy a gun from a licensed dealer, but a huge share of gun sales in this country happen between private parties, at a gun show, online, in the parking lot, through classified ads, with no check at all. A study from 2017 showed that almost a quarter of total gun sales in America happen without any background check whatsoever. So it appears to be very easy for someone who is known to be violent, or even with a previous history of murder, to get hold of a gun. So a seriously at risk person can fail a background check at the gun store, flagged dangerous and prohibited, and then find a private seller and buy the exact same weapon with no questions asked, and that includes a high capacity assault rifle. And then they could go directly to your church, your school, your mall, or other places of public gathering and wreak havoc. And then we have straw purchases, where someone buys a firearm on behalf of somebody else who cannot legally possess one. This remains a significant source of firearms used in crimes in America. There are many other loopholes that I won't go into today, but they all add up to the fact that our background check system for sale of firearms in the United States is a total farce, and anyone who thinks that we really have such a system in place is just kidding themselves. But our legislators refuse to do anything about it, and this puts you and me and our children at risk. Background checks do not take away guns from law abiding citizens, but our lax attitude towards this issue values the gun rights of people who are known to be violent over the lives of our children. How many more sandy hooks is it going to take before we realize just how irresponsible this is and do something about it? The next public health issue worth mentioning is the implementation of the enforcement of red flag laws. A red flag law, also called Extreme Risk Protection Order, allows the court to temporarily remove firearms from a person who appears to pose a significant danger to themselves or others. For instance, picture this situation. Everyone around this person can see the danger coming, but under old rules, there was nothing that anybody could do about it until after the tragedy. A red flag law changes that. A family member or s or in some states law enforcement can petition a judge, and if the evidence is there, the court can temporarily remove that person's firearms until the danger passes. This is not about punishment, it's just a pause button, and the strongest evidence so far suggests that these laws do help reduce firearms suicides. But the problem with red flag laws is that they are not universal, and they are not strictly and evenly enforced. They are a state by state patchwork, and in my state, Alabama, is one of the states that doesn't even have one. In fact, only twenty two states and Washington, DC have red flag laws. It just makes no sense to me that even when we know before the bullets start flying that someone is at risk, we are helpless to do anything about it, all because our legislatures won't step up and do the right thing. Several major mass shootings, including Parkland, Buffalo, and Lewiston, have been cited by investigators or experts as cases where properly used red flag laws might have interrupted the path to tragedy. Another intervention to consider would be a national firearm registry, which would maintain records linking firearms to their owners. It would help law enforcement trace firearms used in crimes, discourage illegal trafficking of guns, and improve accountability. Seems pretty clear to me, if we register our cars, then why can't we register firearms? Particularly weapons capable of causing mass casualties. Again, this does not take away anybody's gun, it's just a common sense public health reform that could save lives. And there are other innovations also that could help, including community violence intervention programs and hospital-based violence intervention programs, meeting someone at the bedside right after a shooting and helping change the direction of their life before retaliation pulls them back in. Because nearly one in four people who survive a gun assault before the age of twenty five will be shot again within the next ten years. Think about that. For these young survivors, a gunshot wound is too often not a single event, but it's the beginning of a cycle. That bedside moment, when somebody is lying there having to look death in the face, may be the single best chance we ever get to break that cycle. Another component of a comprehensive public health campaign is teaching nonviolent conflict resolution as a part of an overall violence prevention strategy. These evidence-based programs consistently reduce aggression, fighting, bullying, and other violent behaviors, and some have been associated with reductions in shootings. They can be taught in schools, community health centers, churches, youth programs, prisons, workplaces, police academies, military training programs, health and substance use treatment programs, and as a part of a neighborhood violence intervention initiative. The goal is simply to equip people of all ages with practical skills for managing anger, resolving disputes, and de-escalating conflict all without violence. So these are just a few of the evidence-based public health approaches that can be taken.

Lobbying, Alabama, And The 90%

SPEAKER_01 41:25

However, these two issues are sadly intricately related. So any honest conversation has to mention the issue of politics, because at the end of the day, it seems to me that political gridlock fueled by lobbying and big money and blocking the will of the majority of the people who want gun control may be the single greatest barrier to meaningful change and ultimately to saving lives. And yes, that's right, politicians are putting easy money over the lives of our children. It's that simple. There's a saying that all politics are local, so I'm going to start this discussion about politics from where I live in the state of Alabama. Now let me be clear, I'm not coming at this from a Democratic or Republican point of view. Honestly, I'll vote for any candidate, red, blue, purple, green, or whatever, if they will strongly advocate for reasonable steps to reduce gun violence and to save the lives of children. I honestly don't care what their party is, but I'm just going to tell it like it is. The facts speak for themselves. To be fair, I looked at the issue as it pertains to both major political parties in my state. And as I researched it, I could not find any major statewide Democratic candidate in recent years who made guns as a central visual element for their campaign ads. But on the Republican side, it seems like the price of admission to a primary is a picture or a video of a candidate holding, carrying, or shooting a gun. And they use the same three words, faith, family, and firearms. In her 2022 campaign, one of our U.S. senators, and I won't name names, ran an ad she called Shoot Straight, which shows her shooting a gun. And just this year, another Alabama Republican running for Senate put out a spot titled Shoot You Straight, featuring himself with a shotgun and describing his conservative positions as his targets. Again, in my state, it's as if handling a firearm on camera was a qualification for public office. Now we like to be number one here in Alabama, especially when it comes to football. But in recent years, we have been among the very worst states in the country when it comes to children getting shot and dying from firearm injuries. Depending on who you read, we're somewhere between number one and number three out of 50 states. And it gets worse. Children's of Alabama, our local hospital for kids, and the only pediatric trauma center in the state documented a 145% increase in pediatric firearm injuries between 2018 and 2023, and the number of children they treated for gunshot wounds more than doubled in five years. As it turns out, about a third of the deaths from firearms in Alabama come from firearms not being stored safely. Due to the strong gun lobby in Alabama, our state does not have a gun safe storage law, even in homes with children. There have been reasonable efforts to pass such laws, but they have all failed repeatedly. Repeatedly secondary to gun lobby money. I hope that you can connect the dots there to innocent children's lives being lost. From a medical standpoint, these are not just abstract numbers, these are preventable deaths. And when you step back and look at this through the public health framework, the question stops being about political identity, it's about outcomes. We have to ask ourselves, what politics, what environments, what cultural beliefs, and what behaviors are producing these results, and what can we do to change them? So while most of our politicians keep stoking fear and promoting guns, they seem to be completely deaf and blind to the real world impact in our society, especially the impact to our children. Now I wish all of our politicians will, I really do, but I keep picturing the day years from now, when their grandkid climbs up on their lap and asks, Grandma, did you value the money from the gun lobby more than you value the lives of innocent little girls like me? But by then the damage will be done. The children will be injured or dead. But maybe that question from an innocent child is what it finally takes to wake up these politicians to the damage firearms are doing to the fabric of our society. And perhaps that question from that little girl will help our legislators miraculously grow a spine and suddenly stand up to the gun lobby and learn to do the right thing by the children and the citizens of our state, the majority of whom want reasonable gun reform. And I guess I'm naive, but it just seems to me that when it comes to saving children's lives, we shouldn't be red or blue. We should all be united behind this incredibly important issue. And on the basics, the majority of Americans are already united. Roughly nine in ten Americans support universal background checks. Nine in ten. That includes the majority of gun owners. But neither of my senators will support it. About three-fourths of Americans support safe storage laws, but reasonable efforts to pass this law in my state have been defeated time and time again. About eight in ten support red flag laws, and a majority even support restrictions on assault weapons. Yet both of my senators consistently block any effort to take guns away from people who are even known to be dangerous. So if the overwhelming majority of us agree, why does nothing ever happen to fix this problem? Well here's the uncomfortable answer. Because a small, intensely organized, extraordinarily well funded minority has more political power than the majority. Money and lobbying have hijacked the public's willingness to do the right thing. A handful of well financed groups have learned to punish any politician who crosses them and reward the ones who fall in line. And so the will of ninety percent of the public gets stopped cold by the powerful and well moneyed influence of a few. It's a classic case of a tail wagging the dog, and the clear result is scores of children shot by guns every single day. But we the majority have been silent too long, and silence has consequences. So like the trauma surgeon I talked about earlier, for all those who care about the health and lives of our children and our general society, this is our lane. Our lane has been hijacked and we need to take it back through vocal, passionate, and well funded opposition. So here's the plan, y'all.

What Parents And Clinicians Can Do

SPEAKER_01 47:06

Start by doing what you can do in your own home. If you have firearms in your home, then store them locked and unloaded and separate from the ammunition. Not eventually, not when you get around to it, but today, before it's too late. If your child goes to a friend's house, add one question to the list you already asked. Do you have any guns in the home? And if so, are they stored safely? I know it feels awkward, but ask anyway. You ask about pools, you ask about peanut allergies, and we ask our loved ones to put on seatbelts. This belongs on the same list. Use your vote and use your voice. Call your state and federal representatives. It takes ninety seconds and they count every call. Show up at school boarding and city council meetings. Use your voice. Call your state and federal representatives. It takes ninety seconds and they count every call. Vote in every election for the candidate red or blue who will act on what the majority already wants. Join an organization doing this work so your single voice becomes ten thousand. There are many organizations out there you can join or contribute to to advocate for gun safety. These are two numbers to list here, but a quick internet search will help you find them. Talk about it openly with people in your life because you're not alone. You are in the 90%. And if you're a clinician out there listening, especially if you take care of children, then get more involved and active when it comes to the number one cause of death in children. It seems to me that on every intake form we should ask these questions. Are there any firearms in the home? And how are they stored? Then if it's an issue, some counseling on the spot may be helpful, which may go on to prevent a death. That's not politics, that's prevention. That's healthcare doing its job. Know your state's red flag process so you can guide a frightened family when it matters most. And lend your voice and your credibility to this because the medical community has been quiet on this important issue for far too long. The whole point is this, we need to take back this issue from the well-funded few and we need to return it where it belongs to the people, to the majority, to the ninety percent, to parents, to communities, to the people who actually have to live and bleed with the consequences. As the great John Lewis once said, make good trouble. This is not about taking away anybody's freedom or anybody's guns, it's about responsibility, accountability, and good governance. So let me end where I began. As the trauma surgeon said, this is our lane. When the ER team is hanging a unit of blood to save the life of an innocent child, this is our lane. When a rehab team teaches a 14 year old how to live the rest of their life in a wheelchair or care for his new colosophy bag, this is our lane. When taxpayers end up paying the bill for a child who would otherwise become a productive citizen and now is basically a human vegetable for the rest of his life due to traumatic brain injury, this is our lane. When a six year old in Virginia carries his mother's unsecured gun to school and shoots his teacher, then this is our lane. And by the way, that really happened. And when we work upstream before the bullets start flying, with common sense public health measures to stop the injury from ever happening, this is our lane. I spent the first half of my career trying to save lives in the ER, and the other half trying to optimize wellness to prevent people from ending up in the ER in the first place. But both taught me the same thing. Prevention works. Once again, with every shooting we always hear the same boilerplate response. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families, and I do believe these words are sincere. But thoughts and prayers come after their lives are lost. While public health measures begin before the bullets start flying. Grief is not a strategy. Mourning is not a policy. So let's go back to the issue about changing the things you can, and we may not be able to change the incidence of birth defects in children, but by golly, we can change gun violence. This is not an unsolvable mystery. And let me say this loud and clear. In fact, most gun owners I know care deeply about safety, and most of them already do the right things. In fact, they can really be a huge part of the solution. Owning a firearm and protecting children are not opposing values. So if you remember nothing else from this episode of our podcast, remember this. Gun violence is a preventable tragedy and prevention is our lane. It's mine, and it's yours too. So let's get involved and make good trouble. Thank you so much for listening and thanks for caring. And thank you for stepping into this lane with me because our kids deserve better.

Support The Show And Closing

SPEAKER_01 51:42

Well that'll about do it for this episode of Wellness Connection MD. I thank you so much for listening. I hope we were able to share something with you that informed and inspired. Before we part, I'd like to remind you that our podcast is one of the rare podcasts out there these days that remains completely unbiased and commercial free. If you'd like to make a contribution to the show and to help us keep it going, then there are a couple ways you can contribute. First, if you buy nutritional supplements, and we're not asking you to buy anything you don't already take, just consider purchasing your supplements from our Full Script Dispensary at a 10% discount. You can see the link to Full Script below in the show notes, or you can go to McMinMD.com and the link will also appear there at the bottom of the homepage under Helpful Links. It's quite simple, just click on the link and I'll guide you through the process. It's a win-win. You get the high quality supplements at a discount and we get your support for the show, for which we are very grateful. You can also make a contribution directly to the show via credit card or PayPal at the Support the Show link, which is in the show notes. And thank you so much for your support. It really means a lot to us. And don't forget to subscribe to the show so that you won't miss an episode. And tell your friends and family about us and help us spread the word about evidence-based, holistic, functional, lifestyle, preventive, and integrative medicine. And if you like the show, please help us out by taking a moment to rate us on iTunes. I'm proud to say that we have one of the highest ratings in the wellness podcast space, so keep the love coming. It means so much to us. And if you'd like to reach out to us to comment on the show or to make a recommendation for future topics, you may do so at drmcminn at yahoo.com. And if you would like to view a complete transcript of the show, you may do so by going on over to McMinn MD.buzzsprout.com and you will find it there. Well that should do it. Until next time, stay curious, stay informed, keep it real, and remember, small actions can lead to big changes. Take that first step towards better health. This is Dr. McMinn signing out. Take care and be well.