The Elm

Gun violence will continue to be a devastating public health crisis in the U.S. as long as our government refuses to make impactful gun control legislation.

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Nov. 19 was another normal drive home for Jennifer Nelson, a student nurse at Shock Trauma and December 2018 graduate of the University of Maryland School of Nursing CNL program. Until it wasn't.

A few blocks away from campus, Jennifer noticed a young man lying on the sidewalk in a pool of blood. She pulled her car over and applied her training and skills of physical assessment and chest compressions. The young man later died from his wounds at the hospital, multiple gunshot wounds to the upper body. He was 28 years old.

Just three days prior, another Baltimore man, 37 years old, was shot and killed 50 feet away from this incident. He was shot 23 times.

Gun violence is, was, and will continue to be a devastating public health crisis in this country as long as our government refuses to make impactful gun control legislation and continues bowing to the monetary and political power of the National Rifle Association (NRA). Until this year, federal research funding for gun violence research was legislatively stifled by a 1996 amendment to the Consolidated Appropriations Act, better known as the "Dickey Amendment." Through this amendment, the NRA held destructive political control, preventing decades of scientific research and public health progress. Although the 2018 funding allocation bill updated language in reference to federal funding restrictions, progress and change has been slow.

Mass and domestic shootings are almost entirely an American problem. In fact, each day 100 Americans are killed by guns in the U.S., with many more shot and injured. Every day in Baltimore, lives and families are forever shattered by guns; news of mass shootings across media networks, seemingly around the clock, fail to stir anger and urgency because of the staggering volume. We are numb, but we can't afford to be.

In early November, the NRA mocked the medical community for taking a stance on gun violence and gun control, telling medical professionals to "stay in their lane." A strong response and hashtag (#ThisIsOurLane) soon followed, with clinicians detailing the senseless violence, devastation, and trauma they treat and care for on a daily basis in practice.

As students and future health care professionals living and building our careers in Baltimore, we must make our voices heard in these discussions and highlight the voices and experiences of our patients, neighbors, and communities, whose very lives are all derailed, or ended prematurely, by guns. The 116th Congress convened last month. We know we can expect bills to be presented in the near future tackling gun violence, and advocating for federally-funded public health research. These bills must move forward to address our uniquely gun-centric, hyper-partisan American problem.

Write and call your representatives and senators. Tell them why, as a student, doctor, nurse, pharmacist, dentist, lawyer, social worker, or scientist, you demand change, reform, and justice.

Call for necessary change in honor of lives ended too soon; push for reforms on behalf of families that remain forever devastated by their loss.

Work toward justice for marginalized communities and the many victims of violence who do not make headlines.

#ThisIsOurLane

Elyse De Laittre, MS
University of Maryland School of Nursing December 2018 Graduate, CNL Program
Students United for Policy, Education, and Research (SUPER) President, Spring-Fall 2018

Jennifer Nelson, MS
University of Maryland School of Nursing December 2018 Graduate, CNL Program
Students United for Policy, Education, and Research (SUPER) Treasurer, Fall 2018

Disclaimer: Elm Voices & Opinions articles reflect the thoughts or opinions of their individual authors, and may not represent the thoughts or values of UMB as an institution.