Lieberman said she and her peers will continue their pursuit of safer communities. 1 cause of death among children in the United States, Dr. With gun violence recently becoming the No. “But taking time to address a public health issue in a larger context helps remind me of the good I can do as a physician and reminds me why I took this path.” “Physician burnout is a real problem for us all over the country …,” he continued. “It was great being in a group of peers all passionate about the same thing. “We recognize that gun violence, and in particular the massive and random nature of assault weapon violence, is a public health crisis and is not, or at least should not be, a partisan issue,” Dr. Nevada Chapter Vice President Terence McAllister, M.D., FAAP, traveled to Washington with his peers to offer his perspective as an Air Force veteran and a researcher who studied home gun storage. It was wonderful to collaborate across specialties that way.” It was physicians that take care of trauma patients, it was surgeons and it was all sorts of specialties so that multiple perspectives were shared and heard. “The whole thing was incredibly well thought out and organized and really designed for maximum impact with trying to get as many people from as many states into the offices of their elected representatives as possible. “It was really eye-opening and remarkable,” Dr. Guerrero, M.D., FAAP, the only pediatrician in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 students and two teachers were killed at Robb Elementary School last May.ĪAP Iowa Chapter President Marianka Pille, M.D., FAAP, also made the trip. She was joined by dozens of physicians representing more than half the states, including Roy A. Lieberman returned to Washington to pressure lawmakers to enact stricter gun laws. Lieberman was among more than 500 people who went to Washington, D.C., to meet with members of Congress and the White House to support a federal assault weapons ban. Just nine days after the group was formed, Dr. She joined March Fourth, a nonpartisan organization founded in the wake of the Highland Park shooting. But the July 4 tragedy inspired her to do more. Lieberman had considered her advocacy role as a pediatrician largely to be in her office, caring for patients. “That inability to feel like I could send my kids to normal activities and still feel that they are safe is what motivated me as a mother to create change.”ĭr. “It absolutely ruptured our sense of safety and security,” Dr. Lieberman has seen parade attendees who are dealing with anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. But they also experienced guilt and anger. In the following weeks and months, the Lieberman family felt grateful that they survived the shooting, which left seven people dead and many more injured. Lieberman, who eventually learned her husband and daughter were able to run safely to a friend’s home, where they too were locked down for several hours. “… It was definitely the scariest day of our lives,” said Dr. Not knowing what the threat was, the group sat as silent as possible in the dark, while trying to assure the children that everything would be OK. There were 16 people in that bathroom for two-and-a-half hours.” We pushed through and made our way to a storefront, and we ran into the back of the store into a single-occupancy bathroom. There were 13 of us, but I found my mom and stepdad who both have limited mobility. “As we looked for each other, we got lost in this absolute stampede of people,” Dr. Lieberman and her husband, Elliot, who also is a physician, each grabbed one of their children, locked eyes and started to run through the crowd, unsure of where to go or what to do. “Pretty soon it was hundreds, maybe thousands of people running and screaming.”ĭr. “It quickly became clear that, one after another, we were being shot at from somewhere,” Dr. The idyllic July 4 scene, however, was shattered when the sound of gunfire erupted from an unknown direction. Lieberman grew up in the community and now is enjoying many of the same traditions with her own family. As she watched her two children collecting candy at the Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Ill., last summer, Emily Lieberman, M.D., FAAP, recalled attending the event when she was younger.
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