Steven Riczo

About the author: Steven Riczo is director of ambulatory operations at the University Hospitals Health System in Beachwood, Ohio.

The United States has higher levels of gun ownership than any other developed nation, and the highest gun homicide rate to match. The most common reason Americans cite for owning a handgun is to protect against crime, but guns are used in homicides, suicides, and unintentional shootings more than eleven times more often than they are used in self-defense. To reduce gun crime and violence Americans must embrace rational gun control policies, such as licensing of gun owners and registration of firearms, raising the legal age for possession of handguns to 21, legislating mandatory waiting periods for gun purchases, and requiring gun manufacturers to make their products safer.

As Americans become sickened...