Thinking about gun safety is a doc’s job, physician says
More than 650 people were killed by firearms in Oregon in 2022. Oregon emergency departments treated nearly 800 more people with firearm injuries, nearly 70 of whom subsequently died.
Every part of the state is affected by firearm deaths, with suicide by gun more prevalent in rural areas and gun homicides more prevalent in urban areas, according to data from the state’s new federally funded consortium tracking emergency room admissions. Overall, about three out of four deaths were by suicide, according to the Oregon Health Authority’s injury death data.
Against this backdrop, primary care physicians have a responsibility to try and protect their patients from injury and death from firearms, said Dr. Katie Iossi, a physician with the Portland VA and an associate professor at Oregon Health & Science University.
