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  • Press Release

    AAMC Statement on Recent Mass Shootings in Texas, New York, California

    Press Contacts

    John Buarotti, Sr. Public Relations Specialist

    AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) President and CEO David J. Skorton, MD, issued the following statement in response to recent mass shootings in Texas, New York, and California:

    “The tragic murders throughout our nation at the hands of gun violence over the last several days are heartbreaking. We stand with the families and loved ones of the victims in Uvalde who are grieving in pain today, as well as those who were affected by the recent racially motivated shooting in Buffalo and the recent shooting in Southern California. We express our profound sympathies for the senseless loss of lives.

    These assaults once again vividly illustrate the all-too-familiar consequences of how gun violence continues to plague the nation. They are also a reminder of how homicides, suicides, and unintentional injuries with firearms take an overwhelming daily toll on our communities. These preventable tragedies will continue to be inevitable as long as lawmakers continue to choose inaction over reasonable protections to keep our children and our communities safe.

    We once again call on Congress to work in a bipartisan manner to take decisive action on commonsense policies and reforms, such as background checks, investments in hospital-based and other community violence interventions, and other tools that so many Americans support.

    Gun violence is not political. It is a public health crisis that must be addressed. How much more can our nation endure?”


    The AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) is a nonprofit association dedicated to improving the health of people everywhere through medical education, health care, medical research, and community collaborations. Its members are all 158 U.S. medical schools accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education; 13 accredited Canadian medical schools; approximately 400 academic health systems and teaching hospitals, including Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and more than 70 academic societies. Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC leads and serves America’s medical schools, academic health systems and teaching hospitals, and the millions of individuals across academic medicine, including more than 193,000 full-time faculty members, 96,000 medical students, 153,000 resident physicians, and 60,000 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in the biomedical sciences. Following a 2022 merger, the Alliance of Academic Health Centers and the Alliance of Academic Health Centers International broadened participation in the AAMC by U.S. and international academic health centers.