It’s a gut-wrenching fact of mass shootings when an assault-style rifle is used.
“We can’t treat the majority of those those types of injuries because they’re they’re rapidly and immediately fatal,” said Dr. Ronald Stewart, senior trauma surgeon for University Health and chair of surgery for The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
It became a reality for 21 families in Uvalde on May 24th.
“Once someone gains access to a classroom with a high with a high capacity magazines, semi-automatic high-velocity rifle AR 15 styled firearm the lethality is horrific,” Dr. Stewart said.
Dr. Stewart treated patients after two mass shootings, the May 24th shooting at Robb Elementary and the November 2017 shooting in Sutherland Springs.
“We should all acknowledge that it is preventable,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”
Dr. Stewart is a part of the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma.
The committee drafted these articles focused on preventing gun violence and death.
The goal is to present detailed research and create realistic solutions.
“Work to understand and address the underlying root causes of violence while simultaneously working to make firearm ownership as safe as reasonably possible,” Dr. Stewart said.
In a year marred by almost 700 mass shootings in the U.S., Dr. Stewart and his colleagues feel change is desperately needed.
“We’ve put together teams of a very passionate but responsible firearm owners who have clear recommendations on what what we could do around firearm safety to to to reduce these things,” he said.
The committee made up of doctors is recommending more extensive background checks, permits to purchase certain guns with high-capacity magazines, and treating mass shootings as terrorism which would allow law enforcement more ability to predict, detect, and deter them.