American Medical Association votes to support waiting periods and background checks for gun buys

An AR-15 assault rifle, like the one above, was used in several mass murders including the shooting at Orlando's Pulse night club. (Wikipedia image)

The American Medical Association voted at its annual meeting to expand its existing policy on gun safety to include support for waiting periods and background checks for all firearm purchasers. The previous policy supported them, but only for purchasers of handguns; the update parallels policies endorsed by other health organizations.

Earlier at the meeting, the AMA adopted policy calling gun violence in the United States "a public health crisis" requiring a comprehensive public health response and solution. Additionally, the AMA resolved to lobby Congress to overturn legislation that for 20 years has prohibited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from researching gun violence.

The AMA has numerous, long-standing policies that support increasing the safety of firearms and their use, and reducing and preventing firearm violence. The organization's official stance "recognizes that uncontrolled ownership and use of firearms, especially handguns, is a serious threat to the public's health inasmuch as the weapons are one of the main causes of intentional and unintentional injuries and deaths."

[Also: Guns a 'public health crisis,' AMA says, asks Congress to end ban on research]

AMA policy supports legislation calling for a waiting period before purchasing any form of firearm in the U.S., and supports requiring background checks for all handgun purchasers.

The policy also supports stricter enforcement of present federal and state gun safety legislation, and the imposition of mandated penalties for crimes committed with the use of a firearm, including the illegal possession of a firearm.

All of these policies were originally adopted in the late 1980s, when there was a national focus on handguns in part because access to relatively inexpensive handguns had led to an increase in rates of homicide, especially among young people. The AMA has repeatedly reaffirmed these policies.

"The shooting in Orlando is a horrific reminder of the public health crisis of gun violence rippling across the United States," said AMA President Steven Stack, M.D., in a statement. "Mass killers have used AR-15s, rifles and handguns, and today we strengthened our policy on background checks and waiting periods to cover them all with the goal of keeping lethal weapons out of the hands of dangerous people."

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