WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services on Tuesday declared gun violence a public health crisis, citing the rapidly rising number of firearm-related injuries and deaths in the country.
The warning from the country’s top doctor, Dr. Vivek Murthy, came as the U.S. endured another summer weekend marked by mass shootings that left dozens of people dead or injured.
“People want to be able to walk safely in their neighborhoods,” Murthy said in a telephone interview with the Associated Press. “America should be a place where we can all go to school, to work, to the grocery store or to our church without fear of putting our lives at risk.”
To reduce the number of gun deaths, Murthy is calling on the U.S. to ban automatic rifles, introduce universal background checks for gun purchases, regulate the industry, pass laws restricting the employ of firearms in public spaces, and punish people who do not store their weapons safely.
None of these proposals can be implemented nationwide without passing legislation in Congress, which typically shies away from gun control measures. However, some state legislatures have already implemented some of the health secretary’s suggestions or may consider them.
Surgeon General Murthy said there is “broad agreement” that gun violence is a problem, citing a poll last year that found most Americans fear at least sometimes that a loved one could be injured by a firearm. In 2022, more than 48,000 Americans died from gunshot wounds.
Doctors immediately praised Murthy’s recommendation. The American Academy of Family Physicians, for example, has considered gun violence a public health epidemic for over a decade.
“Primary care physicians have long known and seen firsthand the devastating impact that gun violence has on our patients and the communities we serve,” the group’s president, Steven Furr, said in a statement.
However, Murthy’s recommendation is likely to cause controversy among the gun lobby and is sure to anger Republican lawmakers, as most had opposed his twice-confirmed nomination because of his statements on gun violence.
The National Rifle Association immediately rejected Murthy’s recommendation.
“This is an extension of the Biden administration’s war on law-abiding gun owners,” Randy Kozuch, the organization’s president, said in a statement on X.
It was the NRA and Republicans, who enjoy the backing of the powerful gun lobby, that nearly blocked Murthy’s confirmation as Surgeon General a decade ago. Murthy became more peaceful on the issue of gun violence after his earlier comments nearly cost him his job, eventually promising the Senate that he had “no intention of using my office as Surgeon General as a pulpit for gun control.”
Then-President Donald Trump fired Murthy in 2017, but President Joe Biden re-nominated him in 2021.
Murthy has issued warnings about troubling health trends in American life, including loneliness and social media employ. In an opinion piece in The New York Times this month, he said social media has contributed to a mental health crisis among the country’s adolescent people and called on Congress to mandate warning labels on social media platforms, similar to those on cigarette packs.
But he also faces 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 issue a report on the issue in 2022.
“It is now time for us to take this issue out of the realm of politics and into the realm of public health, just as we did with smoking over half a century ago,” Murthy told AP.
A 1964 report by the United States Department of Health that raised awareness of the dangers of smoking is widely credited with reducing tobacco employ and bringing about regulation of the industry.
Murthy now hopes his recommendation on guns will also change the conversation on the issue. He has been encouraged by some developments in Congress, including the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022, which tightened background checks for firearms.
A White House report obtained by The Associated Press said more thorough background checks prevented about 800 gun sales to people under 21. In addition, more than 500 people, including some with ties to transnational cartels and organized crime rings, have been charged with gun trafficking and other crimes under the landmark Gun Safety Act.
Children and adolescent Americans are particularly affected by gun violence, Murthy notes in his guidebook, Gun Violence: A Public Health Crisis in America. The suicide rate by gun has increased by almost 70% among 10- to 14-year-olds. Children in the United States die from gunshot wounds far more often than children in other countries, according to research he conducted.
It has become a routine part of pediatricians’ checkups to talk to families about locking up their guns and keeping them away from their children, says Benjamin Hoffman, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics. When children don’t have access to a gun, a immense portion of firearm deaths and injuries are prevented – accidental shootings and suicides.
“Access to a firearm for a child going through a mental health crisis is an absolute recipe for the most tragic things imaginable,” Hoffman said.
Even if children are not directly victims of a shooting, they can suffer the psychological effects of gun violence, the report says. About half of teens in the U.S. are afraid of a school shooting. And in areas where there has already been a fatal school shooting, antidepressant employ among teens increases by more than 20%.
In addition to recent regulations, Murthy is calling for more research into gun violence and for the health care system to educate patients about protected gun handling and proper gun storage during checkups.
