Report Outlines Strategies for Reducing Deaths, Injuries From Gun Use by 2040

JAMA has released a report outlining a plan for reducing violent crime involving guns and strategies to reduce “firearms harms.”

The report, “Toward a Safer World by 2040: The JAMA Summit Report on Reducing Firearm Violence and Harms,” lays out five broad strategies outlined during a March summit of 60 leaders from a spectrum of disciplines.

The report, released on Nov. 3, states that the strategies are meant to address, from a wide perspective, violent crime and harms by people with guns.

“Achieving the 2040 vision will require expansion of proven evidence-based strategies and the development of new, innovative approaches rooted in equity, accountability, and collective responsibility,” the report’s abstract reads.

The steps include addressing various issues in communities afflicted by violent crime, using technology to make guns and homes safer, treating bearing guns as a consumer protection and public health issue, taking a “whole-of-government” approach, and improving research to provide reliable data.

Dr. Frederick P. Rivara, a principal author of the report, denied that it is a push for gun control in an interview posted online.

“That’s a dirty word. We don’t use the word ‘gun control,’” Rivara said.

However, he said, the summit participants are aware of the size of the issue they are facing and the constitutional issues involved.

“Given that there are 400 million firearms in the United States, and given the Second Amendment, how can we live with those and still reduce firearm harms?” he said as the goal of the report.

According to the report, there are approximately 400 million firearms in America, and that number is likely growing. The FBI processed nearly 40 million background checks for new gun purchases in 2020.

Nearly 80 percent of homicides and more than half of suicide deaths involve firearms, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“And, you know, firearms don’t necessarily cause violence, but because they’re so lethal, they make that violence lethal. They make it fatal in many instances. That’s what causes the 45,000 deaths each year in the United States for firearms,” Rivara said.

Rivara said the strategies discussed included rethinking how law enforcement works in communities and focusing on techniques for intervening before violence is committed.

This would involve developing technology, such as biometrics, that prevents a gun from being fired by anyone but its legal owner. Robotics and artificial intelligence could be incorporated into home security systems to reduce the need for firearms, he said.

He said the participants favored a “whole-of-government approach” to dealing with issues involving guns. He pointed to the Biden-era White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention as an example of how such an approach may work.

The short-lived project was designed to coordinate gun control and gun safety efforts across the nation. The Trump administration closed the office shortly after President Donald Trump took office.

“It demonstrated that coordinated action, aligned with scientific insight, can accelerate harm reduction, and set the precedent for future administrations and inspired calls to establish a permanent interagency office,” Rivara said.

According to the report, the summit held last March included physicians, lawyers, historians, gun control advocates, and members of the firearms industry, among others. It did not include any gun rights advocates, according to the report.

Dr. Val Finnell, a medical doctor and Pennsylvania state director for Gun Owners of America, dismissed the report because it failed to equally consider the benefits of gun ownership.

He said focusing solely on crime, accidental shootings, and suicide is akin to studying a new blood pressure medication by only looking at the negative side effects.

He pointed out a 2013 CDC study that found that in 2008, guns were used anywhere from 500,000 to 3 million times defensively, although lower estimates of 108,000 were reported. This was against a backdrop of 300,000 violent crimes by criminals with guns.

“There’s no mention of any benefit of firearms ownership in this article,” Finnell told The Epoch Times of the JAMA report.

According to Finnell, if many of the report’s plans were implemented, law-abiding gun owners would be disarmed while criminals who ignore the law would have guns.

He said that gun laws keep guns away from people when they may need them for defense. So-called “Smart Gun” technology can take up to three seconds before it allows the owner to actually fire his weapon.

“Some of these [smart guns] have biometric systems that can fail when the user is under the effect of stress. I’m a USCCA firearms instructor and we teach that critical incidents happen very quickly, within three to five seconds. If it takes your gun [up] to three seconds [to fire], guess what? You’re dead,” Finnell said, referring to the United States Concealed Carry Association.

USCCA offers financial coverage for those who are involved in a lawful defensive gun use. The organization also offers a wide variety of training materials on gun safety, personal defense, and the law.

Mark Oliva, manager of public affairs for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said the report is a push to expand firearms regulation by shifting the debate from the law into public health.

“Criminal misuse of firearms cannot be solved by medical means. That is the domain of law enforcement and government officials who are willing to enforce the laws and hold criminals accountable for their crimes,” Oliva wrote in an email to The Epoch Times.

While new computing technology and better firearm storage practices may address some issues, Oliva said that the government’s role regarding firearms is necessarily limited by the Second Amendment. He said that responsible gun owners should be able to determine how best to store and handle their firearms.

According to Oliva, many companies that are represented by his foundation provide gun locks, gun safes, and other items for gun owners to secure their firearms.

“It is not within the authority of governments to dictate which commonly owned firearms a law-abiding citizen can own. That also holds true to secure storage,” Oliva said.

He noted that the Supreme Court addressed many of these issues in its 2008 ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller.

“The government cannot dictate to a lawful gun owner how that firearm must be stored in the home,” Oliva wrote.

Finnell said that for these reasons, the report should not be taken seriously. According to him, the report fails to meet the standard expected of a scientific paper.

“It’s purely advocacy disguised as science,” Finnell said.

Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the report that JAMA released. The Epoch Times regrets the error.