Gun Violence Research and the Profession of Trauma Surgery

Allan B Peetz, Adil Haider

The effects of violence are clearly a central component of any trauma surgeon's job. The role trauma surgeons should play in its prevention and advocacy, however, is not clearly defined. In this article, we discuss the statistics and lack of research on gun violence and survey some of the moral frameworks that define a trauma surgeon's professional responsibilities in violence prevention at a practice and a policy level.