H-145.997 Firearms as a Public Health Problem in the United States - Injuries and Death Our AMA recognizes that uncontrolled ownership and use of firearms, especially handguns, is a serious threat to the public's health inasmuch as the weapons are one of the main causes of intentional and unintentional injuries and deaths. Therefore, the AMA: (1) encourages and endorses the development and presentation of safety education programs that will engender more responsible use and storage of firearms; (2) urges that government agencies, the CDC in particular, enlarge their efforts in the study of firearm-related injuries and in the development of ways and means of reducing such injuries and deaths; (3) urges Congress to enact needed legislation to regulate more effectively the importation and interstate traffic of all handguns; (4) urges the Congress to support recent legislative efforts to ban the manufacture and importation of nonmetallic, not readily detectable weapons, which also resemble toy guns; (5) encourages the improvement or modification of firearms so as to make them as safe as humanly possible; (6) encourages nongovernmental organizations to develop and test new, less hazardous designs for firearms; and (7) urges that a significant portion of any funds recovered from firearms manufacturers and dealers through legal proceedings be used for gun safety education and gun-violence prevention. (CSA Rep. A, I-87; Reaffirmed: BOT Rep. I-93-50; Appended: Res. 403, I-99)