While shooting deaths in the U.S. decreased 14% in 2025 — the largest decline since 2015 — now is not the time to pull back on prevention efforts, healthcare, science and community leaders cautioned March 5.
The remarks came during Northwell Health’s Gun Violence Prevention Forum in New York City. The event has been hosted by the New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based health system since 2019 and was spearheaded by Michael Dowling, Northwell’s former CEO who now serves in an emeritus role. It began as an effort to frame gun violence as a public health emergency.
Mr. Dowling said firearm deaths, injuries and unintentional death from firearms have declined — in many cases by more than 30% — as a result of the interventions implemented across the country by leaders in gun violence prevention.
“Those investments made a difference. So it proves that if you stick with something and you have commitment and you have resilience and you stay for the long haul, you can make change,” he said. “We can celebrate that, but we have to be very, very careful not to get complacent, not to think that we’ve actually solved the problem completely. We have to continue to put our foot on the accelerator and keep moving forward.”
Mr. Dowling was joined by Northwell Health CEO John D’Angelo, MD, and Intermountain Health President and CEO Rob Allen. Mr. Allen highlighted the higher rates of suicide by firearm in the West, where Salt Lake City-based Intermountain is located. He noted the disparity is not by higher suicide attempt rates, but by greater access to firearms in the region, which increases the likelihood of death in suicide attempts.
Mr. Allen outlined gun violence interventions at Intermountain, including distributing nearly 70,000 gun locks to community members.
“I was shocked when I learned the statistics that over 42% of those who decide at some point in their journey that they’ve reached a moment of crisis that they want to end it attempt suicide within 10 minutes, and over 70% attempt it within three hours,” he said. “… We learned quickly that if we can create a time of distance between access to a firearm, we could save a lot of lives.”
Hospitals and health systems have dedicated millions of dollars to weapons detection systems as workplace violence remains prevalent. While underreported, the rate of workplace violence in healthcare is far above the national average across industries.
Other speakers included Gregory Neal Jackson Jr., and Rob Wilcox, both former deputy directors of White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention.
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