ACNM Responds to the Parkland, Florida Shooting

We are deeply saddened by the events of this week and by continuous episodes of mass shooting, and we extend our profound sympathies to the victims, families, friends, and community members affected. However, we will not be offering "thoughts and prayers," which has become stand-in language for inaction against this national travesty. Instead, as we advocate in our Position Statement on Gun Violence, we are calling for Congress to implement universal background checks and other concrete preventative measures. We urge all members of House and Senate and officials at the state and local level to consider the lives already lost and broken, and ones that will be lost if this rampage continues, and take action so that no child has to live in fear of being next.

ACNM also calls on Congress to repeal the 1996 legislation that bans federal research on this true public health crisis. We stand with our APRN colleagues, physicians, and public health providers in urging the Congress and the President to find the resolve to bring an end to this barrage of gun deaths.

Enough is enough. Thoughts and prayers are no longer adequate. We must call for action now.