The number of firearm injuries and deaths are increasing, across the USA. And the numbers ignore the huge ripple effect of each firearm injury and death on our society.

People with gunshot wounds are less likely to make it to emergency departments in the first place, compared to patients with any other type of injury. And if they do make it to my emergency department alive, I am less likely to be able to save them. Recent studies suggest that 25 to 35 per cent of patients with firearm injuries die after hospital arrival, versus only 5 to 10 per cent of patients injured in other ways.

Gunshot wounds are also scarier, for patients and their families, than other types of injury. The sheer terror in the eyes of my patients who have been shot is, frankly, unforgettable.

We cannot stay silent. It’s unconscionable for us as healthcare professionals – or for the public at large – to stand by. This epidemic is decimating our country not just physically, but also emotionally.

The science of firearm injury prevention has stalled. A law passed in 1996 prevents the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from advocating gun control. It does not forbid federal funding of firearm-injury prevention but nonetheless it has had a chilling effect on the field. There has been a dramatic decrease in funding, researchers, publications and the quality of the science.

So we have committed to finding other ways forward. This was the motivation for the creation of AFFIRM Research (the American Foundation for Firearm Injury Reduction in Medicine). It is non-partisan, nimble, and committed to doing what healthcare does best: saving lives through evidence and action. Also, recently, I was one of a number of researchers across the USA who was part of a grant (based at University of Michigan) from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to restart the science of paediatric firearm-injury prevention. It’s a terrific first step.