BMJ 1996;312:1442 (8 June)

News

Australian doctors' push for gun controls

The new president of the Australian Medical Association has targeted gun control as well as violence and smoking on cinema screens as major priorities of his term in office. Dr Keith Woollard, a cardiologist, said that the association would seek the support of doctors around the world to lobby the film industry about the potentially harmful effects of viewers seeing violence and smoking on screen.

Dr Woollard said that the association will join anti-gun groups this month for a summit meeting to support the federal government's tough new stance on firearms control. He said that the association would approach the film industry in the same way it had the tobacco lobby, by constant monitoring and community awareness. "We need to draw attention to what happens when people go and watch movies...and then decide whether the community shares our view that much of what is presented is unethical," he said.

In the wake of the Port Arthur massacre, which left 35 people dead in Tasmania last month, Dr Woollard said that the powerful gun lobby had to accept the controls that would help to reduce violence in society.

"The AMA has long held grave concerns about gun control. A month before the Port Arthur tragedy I called for an urgent overhaul of the gun laws," he said.--CHRISTOPHER ZINN, Australian correspondent, Guardian


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Access all current jobs at BMJ Group
Whats new online at Student BMJ
Listen to the latest BMJ Interview