WASHINGTON – The US surgeon general declared on Tuesday that gun violence is a public health crisis, driven by increasing number of injuries and deaths involving firearms in the country.
The statement issued by Dr. Vivek Murthy, the country’s top doctor, came as the U.S. faced another summer weekend marked by mass shootings that left dozens of people dead or injured.
“People want to be able to walk through their neighborhoods and be safe,” Murthy told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “America should be a place where we can all go to school, to work, to the grocery store, to our house of worship, without having to worry about whether it will put our lives at risk.”
To reduce gun deaths, Murthy calls on the US to ban automatic shotgunsintroduce universal background checks for gun purchases, regulate the industry, pass laws that would restrict their use in public spaces, and penalize people who fail to store their guns safely.
None of these suggestions can be implemented nationwide without legislation passed by Congress, which normally draw back on gun control measures. Some state legislatures, however, have enacted or may consider some of the surgeon general’s proposals.
Murthy said there is “broad agreement” that gun violence is a problem, citing a survey last year, which revealed that most Americans worry, at least sometimes, about the possibility of a loved one being injured by a gun. More than 48,000 Americans died from gunshot wounds in 2021.
His statement promises to be controversial and is sure to outrage Republican lawmakers, most of whom opposed Murthy’s confirmation — twice — to the position because of his statements on gun violence.
Murthy has published warnings about troubling health trends in American life, including the use of social media and loneliness. He has avoided issuing a similar statement on gun violence since 2014 confirmation as surgeon general was paralyzed and nearly derailed by the firearms lobby and Republicans who opposed his previous statements on firearms.
Murthy ended up promising the Senate that he “did not intend to use my position as surgeon general as a bully pulpit on gun control.”
Then-President Donald Trump fired Murthy in 2017, but President Joe Biden reappointed Murthy to the role in 2021. At his second confirmation hearing, he told senators that declaring guns a public health crisis would not be his focus during a new mandate.
But he has faced increasing pressure from some doctors and Democratic advocacy groups to speak out more. A group of four former surgeons general called on the Biden administration to produce a report on the problem in 2022.
“Now is the time to take this issue out of the realm of politics and into the realm of public health, just as we did with smoking more than half a century ago,” Murthy told the AP.
One 1964 report of the surgeon general who raised awareness about the dangers of smoking is widely credited with snubbing tobacco use and precipitating regulations in the industry.
American children and youth, in particular, experience gun violence, Murthy notes in his statement titled “Gun Violence: A Public Health Crisis in America.” Firearm suicide rates have increased significantly in recent years among Americans under the age of 35. Children in the U.S. are much more likely to die from gunshot injuries than children in other countries, research he gathered shows.
In addition to new regulations, Murthy calls for an increase in gun violence research and for the health care system — which will likely be more receptive to his advice — to promote gun safety education during doctor visits.
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