CHICAGO -- In its continuing response to the mass murder in Florida on Sunday, the American Medical Association has come out in favor of background checks and waiting periods for gun purchases.
"We have 370 mass murders a year in this country," , a cardiologist from Salem, Mass., told the AMA's House of Delegates. "Stop studying and let's do something."
The AMA House of Delegates voted 290-180 at its annual meeting on Wednesday to approve a report on reducing gun violence from the AMA's Board of Trustees. The report included this recommendation: "The AMA advocates a waiting period and background check for all firearm purchasers; encourages legislation that enforces a waiting period and background check for all firearm purchasers; and urges legislation to prohibit the manufacture, sale or import of lethal and non-lethal guns made of plastic, ceramics, or other non-metallic materials that cannot be detected by airport and weapon detection devices."
The issue of universal background checks and waiting periods has been one for ongoing debate at the AMA. Just a year ago the House defeated a similar proposal.
And this year the recommendation still had its detractors. , a family physician in Macon, Ga., and a member of the Georgia delegation, argued unsuccessfully that the issue should be referred back to the Board of Trustees for further study.
"I agree things need to be done to reduce violence, but if we're going to work off evidence-based issues, we need evidence," he said. "The most recent tragedy [in Florida] was performed by an individual who has gone through a background check, a waiting period ... and had two FBI investigations, none of which prevented one of the most horrible losses of life we've ever seen in this country."
"Before we ask for something, we need to know it works," Greene continued. "If it shows [a background check] makes a difference, I'll support it all day long. But if it doesn't, why are we asking for something that does not work?"
"We feel the evidence is there for background checks," responded , of Anaheim, Calif., a delegate from the medical student section. "This is something that needs to be done now."
Earlier in the meeting, the AMA came out in favor of limiting firearms at healthcare facilities and ending a ban on gun violence research at the CDC and the National Institutes of Health. The American College of Physicians (ACP) has also sought an end to the research ban and has actively recruited other medical societies, and the American Bar Association, to join the campaign.