While governments are often criticized for imposing regulations and policies that critics consider unnecessary, burdensome and intrusive, there’s usually justification for their actions — particularly when it comes to public safety.
When it comes to gun violence, pandemic-era laws, regulations and bipartisan funding approved in response to the nation’s record spike in firearm casualties have been widely successful over the past five years — reducing gun-related fatalities by more than 18% and injuries by over 35%.
That’s why it’s especially alarming that the White House is eliminating about three dozen regulations pertaining to purchasing, selling and owning firearms, while also cutting federal funding for highly promising violence prevention programs and research on the root causes of the epidemic and ways to deter it. Federal agencies have even removed from their websites government-funded reports on strategies for preventing firearm injuries and deaths.
Among the regulatory changes, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ has eased restrictions aimed at preventing mentally ill individuals from owning firearms, and rescinded a Biden-era Enhanced Regulatory Enforcement Policy that revoked the licenses of firearm dealers who intentionally falsified records or sold weapons without running a background check.
In the three years (2022-24) after the so-called “zero tolerance” policy was implemented in October 2021, the ATF stripped the licenses of 477 gun dealers nationwide. Within weeks of beginning his second term in February 2025, President Trump rescinded the policy, and the number of license revocations subsequently dropped to 56 in 2025, compared to 183 in 2024.
Administration officials say the regulatory changes are simply designed to protect Second Amendment rights and bring the ATF into compliance with current law and recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent.
Yet, even the ATF’s own analyses of the changes acknowledge that some could potentially result in “mass casualty events” — specifically the loosening of gun purchase restrictions on people with a history of mental illness and allowing the use of stabilizing braces that give gun owners more control when firing a weapon, especially AR-style firearms used in many mass shootings.
As healthcare leaders whose caregivers have the unenviable responsibility of treating victims and witnessing the trauma of grieving family members, we should all recognize the absurdity of easing gun safety measures that are saving lives.
Perhaps even more troubling than the regulatory changes and funding cuts, the federal government is also going after state and local governments that have enacted gun safety measures in response to tragedies they’ve experienced. Since last September, the U.S. Department of Justice has filed seven lawsuits challenging state and local gun laws. Most recently on July 1, just hours after new laws took effect, the DOJ sued Virginia to overturn its ban on semi-automatic weapons and California for its restrictions on the sale of Glock-style handguns, which have trigger designs that can be altered into fully automatic weapons.
Now is not the time to retreat from the meaningful progress we’ve achieved in making our communities safer from gun violence. The federal Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, enacted in 2022 with the support of both Democrats and Republicans one month after the fatal shooting of 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde, TX, has contributed to the significant decline in firearm deaths since they reached an all-time high of 48,830 in 2021, as have a spate of state and local laws.
As healthcare leaders, we’ve also played an instrumental role in reducing gun deaths and injuries by supporting education and awareness efforts, collaborating with community-based organizations on violence intervention initiatives that have been targeted for federal funding cuts, mobilizing the collective efforts of CEOs, clinicians, researchers and policymakers, and sharing best practices and strategies.
There’s still a lot of work to be done: firearms killed more than 38,000 Americans and injured more than 26,000 last year — 62% of the deaths were suicides, reinforcing the need for a stronger focus on mental health. And in another embarrassingly sad statistic, firearms continue to be the number one killer of children and adolescents in our country.
I support Second Amendment rights, but I reject the notion that our current laws and policies are depriving law-abiding Americans of their right to bear arms, considering there are far more guns — an estimated 500 million civilian-owned firearms — than people in this country.
As healthcare leaders, preserving public health must continue to be our top priority — and gun violence is a public health crisis that has already claimed far too many lives. Common sense must take precedence over politics. Rather than take a giant step back, we need to build on the progress we’ve made and not become numb to the mindless bloodshed.
Michael J. Dowling is CEO Emeritus of Northwell Health and founder of the National healthcare CEO Council on Gun Violence Prevention & Safety.
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