US gun violence is a health crisis with evidence-based solutions, experts plea

Enlarge / Mourners visit a memorial for victims of Tuesday's mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. (credit: Getty | Anadolu Agency)

In the wake of yet another preventable American gun violence tragedy—one that involved the slaughter of 21 people, including 19 children in a Texas elementary school—doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, health experts, and scientists are once again demanding a long-overdue, evidence-based public health response to the uniquely American public health crisis of gun violence.

This is "very much our lane," Dr. Bindi Naik-Mathuria, a pediatric surgeon at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, told NBC.

She spoke vividly about the immediate impacts that AR-15-style weapons have on a human body—particularly the smallest ones. In the Uvalde, Texas school shooting this week, the gunman used an AR-15-style rifle (the Daniel Defense DDM4 V7 rifle), which he bought online. AR-15-style rifles are often used in mass shootings. They use a common military-caliber ammunition. The bullets don't always pass cleanly through flesh, but can instead become "unstable" and tumble, causing devastating damage that can leave victims unrecognizable and with an exceptionally low chance of survival.