A Call to Action from the Nation's Nurses in the Wake of Newtown

allnurses Guide · Dec 22, 2012

May I gently remind everyone that nurses are not a monolith, and that these professional organizations do not speak for all of us.

Word!
These so-called nursing organizations certainly do NOT represent my point of view.

I think this was the main point Viva was trying to get across. Anytime there is a news report that "nurses" think this or that, I'm not happy. We all do not agree on everything - hang around the political threads here on AN to get a taste of that.

We have firearms - all our kids have been taught to shoot, all have hunted, all have taken Hunter Safety.

I do not agree with the nursing organizations regarding this issue. And I don't appreciate being lumped in with them in the public's eye. So, some of us speak up.

That's all.

The answer is more complicated to gun violence.

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Dec 22, 2012

Thank you! ^^

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Dec 22, 2012

Word!
These so-called nursing organizations certainly do NOT represent my point of view.

As a member, they speak on my behalf. Don't see how nurses could not agree with:

It is time to take action. The nation's nurses call on President Obama, Congress, and policymakers at the state and local level to take swift action to address factors that together will help prevent more senseless acts of violence. We call on policymakers to:
Restore access to mental health services for individuals and families

Increase students' access to nurses and mental health professionals from the elementary school level through college

Ban assault weapons and enact other meaningful gun control reforms to protect society
The nation's nurses raise our collective voice to advocate on behalf of all of those who need our care. As a nation, we must commit to ending this cycle of preventable violence, death, and trauma. We must turn our grief into action.

No one is saying to ban guns entirely.

Vice-President Biden has been a longtime advocate of stricter gun control measures and spearheaded the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. It's definition of Assault Weapons:

Bans the manufacture of 19 military-style assault weapons, assault weapons with specific combat features, "copy-cat" models, and certain high-capacity ammunition magazines of more than ten rounds.

Per Wiki:

The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, H.R. 3355, Pub.L. 103-322, was an act of Congress dealing with crime and law enforcement that became law in 1994. It is the largest crime bill in the history of the US at 356 pages and will provide for 100,000 new police officers, $9.7 billion in funding for prisons and $6.1 billion in funding for prevention programs which were designed with significant input from experienced police officers.Sponsored by U.S. Representative Jack Brooks of Texas, the bill was originally written by Senator Joe Biden of Delaware, passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton.
Following the 101 California Street shootings, the 1993 Waco Siege, and other high-profile instances of violent crime, the act expanded federal law in several ways. One of the most noted sections was the Federal Assault Weapons Ban. Other parts of the act provided for a greatly expanded federal death penalty, new classes of individuals banned from possessing firearms, and a variety of new crimes defined in statutes relating to immigration law, hate crimes, sex crimes, and gang-related crime.

The Justice Department reported on the outcomes of the law in 1999: 21st Century Law Enforcement and Public Safety Act. . 18 U.S.C. sec. 921 (a) (30) lists the type of weapons included in the ban. The Federal Assault Weapons Ban expired on September 13, 2004 due to sunset provisions.

Per the Congressional Research Service Report: Federal Crime Control Issues in the

111th Congress

Based on analysis of the UCR data, the national violent crime rate began to increase sharply in the 1960s. The increase continued throughout the 1970s and into the early 1990s, peaking in1991. By the mid-1990s, however, the violent crime rate began to decline, as illustrated in Figure1. The violent crime rate continued to decline into the new millennium, and despite slight increases in 2005 and 2006, it declined once again in 2007. This decline continued through 2009, with the violent crime rate at its lowest level since the mid-1970s.

This drop in national overall violent crime is attributed to the 1994 Violent Crime Act which introduced the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Program. Under the section Gun Control: "In 2009, 67% of homicides with a known cause were firearm-related."

Mother Jones article first published July 2012 has an outline of the 62 mass killing over the past 30 years: A Guide to Mass Shootings in America; a national map pinpoints towns affected. After this review, the authors came to the conclusion Mass Shootings: Maybe What We Need Is a Better Mental-Health Policy

This is the same thing our Nursing Associations are stating.

allnurses Guide · Dec 22, 2012

Time to Act Now To Restore Our Ravaged Mental Healthcare System

by Deborah Burger

Registered nurses across the country mourn the loss of life marked by the shooting of innocents in Connecticut. This should be a clear wake up call for the White House, Congress, and state and local legislators to take action to address causes of the violence, including restoring the devastating cuts that have occurred to mental health services across the U.S.

Every day a massive tragedy is being played out on a smaller scale everyday in emergency rooms, in mental health facilities, and on the streets across our country, where, with sometimes devastating consequences, mental health is underfunded to a shocking, and sometimes deadly degree. ...

... Members of National Nurses United, the nation's largest organization of nurses, say it is time to act with both short term and long term responses. It is incumbent on all of us to:

Demand private healthcare systems reverse the pervasive cuts to mental health services, especially by profit-focused institutions which view mental health as an easy target for cuts because it is less profitable and has fewer public advocates.
Increase federal, state and local funding of public mental health programs and public health clinics, which play a crucial role in identifying persons with potentially violent mental health problems.
Require health insurance companies to provide full coverage for mental health services, and require parity in mental health coverage with other health services.
Restore school nurses and counselors who are frequently a first target of school budget cuts.
Challenge the stigma of mental health that undermines mental health programs and stigmatizes people needing mental health care, the overwhelming majority of whom are not violent.
Guarantee health care for everyone, including mental health services, based on patient need, not ability to pay, as in improving and expanding Medicare to cover everyone.

Sadly, this growing emergency comes as no surprise to America's nurses who are on the front line of our nation's mental health crisis. ...

... Evidence is in on the mental health crisis (please read further)

Time to Act Now To Restore Our Ravaged Mental Healthcare System | Common Dreams

SoldierNurse22, BSN, RN · Dec 22, 2012

One of the most astute observations I've ever heard on crime, justice, law and punishment came from the Rocky and Bullwinkle show from the top bad guy, Fearless Leader himself.

"You fool! Laws only keep out honest people. When you're a crook, you sneak in anyway!"

InfirmiereJolie · Dec 22, 2012

I agree with RESTORING the The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and the Federal Assault Weapons Ban which was in place in the 1990's like NRSKarenRN.

Basically there are copy cats on the street since it expired and one was used in Colorado last summer. Not good!!!!

allnurses Guide · Dec 22, 2012

I had read before about the % of nurses who are members of ANA and UAN but couldn't remember so went to look it up and found this:

[TABLE=width: 630]

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[TD=class: articletitle, width: 100%]In the News: The Top Nursing Story of 2008: Why Can't Nurses Just Get Along?[/TD]

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So who represents nurses? The once-venerable ANA appears to be fighting for its life. Between last June and December, nurses associations in three states-Hawaii, Michigan, and Minnesota-withdrew from the ANA, citing political and financial differences. California's, Maine's, and Massachusetts's had already withdrawn. In 1954, 44% of all licensed U.S. RNs belonged to the ANA; today, 6%, more or less, are members (the ANA Web site cites several membership figures ranging from 150,000 to 200,000 of the nation's 2.9 million RNs; it also says that an additional 250,000 nurses belong to ANA affiliate organizations, but that number may not take into account the recent defections). The ANA questioned the legality of the state associations' disaffiliations in an October 2008 press release and stated that it remains the "only professional organization to ensure the collective voice of all RNs has national power

Nursing Center - Journal Article

kcmylorn · Dec 22, 2012

Nurse Karen, What about sending that ppetition to the DHS and NIH?

IndiCRNA · Dec 22, 2012

I agree with RESTORING the The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and the Federal Assault Weapons Ban which was in place in the 1990's like NRSKarenRN.
Basically there are copy cats on the street since it expired and one was used in Colorado last summer. Not good!!!!

It was nothing but a feel good "ban". Nothing was actually banned. At no time during the time the law was in force were the "banned" weapons or magazines not readily available at local sporting goods shops. It was a "ban" in name only and useless.

IndiCRNA · Dec 22, 2012

As a member, they speak on my behalf. Don't see how nurses could not agree with:
Ban assault weapons and enact other meaningful gun control reforms to protect society

No of course you don't see how nurses wouldn't agree with you. The goal is present those of us who disagree as unreasonable. Well I am not unreasonable and I very much disagree. I know that banning certain firearms based purely on cosmetic apperance as the 1994 law did simply is not effective for anything.

IndiCRNA · Dec 22, 2012

I had read before about the % of nurses who are members of ANA and UAN but couldn't remember so went to look it up and found this:
[TABLE=width: 630]
[TR]
[TD=class: articletitle, width: 100%]In the News: The Top Nursing Story of 2008: Why Can't Nurses Just Get Along?
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Nursing Center - Journal Article

I never looking into it but I always assumed the ANA was an anti-nurse organization made up of people who disliked nurses. I based this assumption based on their press releases and the things they advocate for.

Laurie52 · Dec 22, 2012

I'm taking a break from making Christmas cookies so here are my thoughts. Let me preface them by saying that I do not own a firearm and have only fired a friend's weapon at a target range. I have limited knowledge of firearms except that firing a glock made me feel like I dislocated my shoulder. I realize that gun ownership is a constitutional right, and I have no objections to anyone owning a musket and making their own ammunition for them. This was the weapon available when the second ammendment was signed.

People with mental health issues have been around forever. Why are we seeing these problems now? I think that the answer is two fold. First, the general attitude of society is rude an very nasty. I don't have to give examples of this, they are all around us. Secondly, it is so very difficult to get someone commited and medicated if they do not want to be. I don't remember these mass killings before the commitment laws where changed and mental institutions were colosed.

A Call to Action from the Nation's Nurses in the Wake of Newtown

Nurses: Do You Support a Call to Action in the Wake of Newtown + other shootings