The North Carolina Medical Society (NCMS) recognizes firearm injury as a public health crisis, that requires a community-aligned approach of public policy and practice to successfully address. The need for effective measures, evidence-based data, and public education and awareness, is imperative to mitigate the injury and death caused by firearms.

The North Carolina Medical Society supports measures and actions to improve firearm safety and education, reduce firearm morbidity and mortality, and increase access to needed supports and services for people in North Carolina.
Therefore, the North Carolina Medical Society:

1. Supports the role and training of the clinician in preventing firearm injury and promoting firearm safety.

2. Supports community awareness campaigns and educational programs aimed at firearm owners, especially those with children or at-risk individuals in the home, about the importance of safe storage, safe use, and the efficacy of firearm safety locks in decreasing intended or unintended firearm-related injuries or death.

3. Supports the enforcement of safe storage and firearm safety lock requirements for firearm owners, as well as the implementation of statewide storage options outside of the home for firearm owners with children or at-risk factors.

4. Supports state funding and implementation of comprehensive, multidisciplinary violence prevention and intervention and/or mitigation programs, developed with community input and considerations.

5. Supports a statewide education and awareness campaign, including increased availability of behavioral health services, centered on firearm-related suicide prevention for all ages.

6. Supports the rights of health care organizations/facilities/practices to enhance the safety of all persons onsite through the enactment of policies that restrict or prohibit firearms on the premises.

7. Supports the enactment of legislation and policy that allows for the temporary removal of firearms from persons at risk of harming themselves or others.

8. Supports strengthening efforts and enforcement to regulate the sale or transfer of guns through permitting and universal background checks.

9. Supports restrictions on the sale of high-capacity magazines and a full ban on the unauthorized creation of 3D printed firearms and firearm components.

10. Supports engineering changes to improve public safety (such as trigger locks, trigger cables, and safe storage options).

11. Supports evidence-driven research and reporting to further inform future firearm safety and education, and violence prevention initiatives.