How Should We Respond to Mass Shootings?

I don’t know if you read an online magazine called MedPage, but it’s a very solid media effort to disseminate medical news and information both to the medical profession, as well as to individuals who are interested in medical issues, i.e., hypochondriacs like me.

Actually, my interest in medicine really focuses on public health because I write about gun violence which has finally been designated as a public health issue by the CDC.

In that regard, MedPage recently published an op-ed by a physician who is identified as an ER doctor and a director of ‘emergency preparedness’ at a hospital in Northern California, and her story is entitled, “Learning How To Control Traumatic Hemorrhage Can Prevent Firearm Deaths.”

How does this ER doctor believe is the most effective way to control the massive damage which is caused when a one-ounce piece of lead hits a human body at the speed of sound? By properly applying tourniquet pressure to the area around the wound which can be learned by enrolling in a course taught by a company called Stop the Bleed. And for the paltry sum of $63, you can also purchase a ‘personal’ kit which contains all the necessary items you will need to keep the wounded person alive until the ambulance shows up.