The US has seen more than 130 mass shootings so far in 2023. Three nine-year-olds and three teachers in Nashville, elders in a Buffalo grocery store, children in Texas classrooms, physicians at a hospital in Tulsa – all gone because of US leaders who refuse to take real action to end the gun violence epidemic.

As doctors, we are on the front lines of these horrific events. No amount of training can prepare you to see a child after they’ve been attacked with an assault rifle. Our nation’s best physicians are no match for the damage done by an AR-15.

I originally authored this petition 6 years ago, soon after the American Medical Association identified gun violence in the US as a public health crisis. I wanted to stand with other doctors like myself to send a message that mass shootings are endangering the future of our children and our country. Since then, the number of mass shootings and their severity has only escalated.

We cannot wait another 6 years – or even another week – for action from our leaders. We stand, as physicians, parents, and all citizens, to call for Congress to instate universal background checks, allow for federally funded research into gun violence, and to immediately ban the sale of assault rifles.