The US Surgeon General Tuesday he declared gun violence a public health crisisdriven by the increasing number of gun injuries and deaths in the country.
The warning issued by Dr. Vivek Murthy, the nation's top doctor, came as the United States grappled with another summer weekend marked by mass shootings which left dozens dead or injured.
“People want to be able to walk around their neighborhoods and be safe,” Murthy told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “America should be a place where we can all go to school, go to work, go to the supermarket, go to our house of worship, without having to worry that it will put our lives at risk.”
To reduce gun deaths, Murthy calls on the United States to ban automatic rifles, introduce universal background checks for gun purchases, regulate the industry, pass laws restricting their use in public spaces and penalize people who do not store their weapons safely.
None of these suggestions can be implemented nationwide without legislation passed by Congress, which typically rejects 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”. armed violence is a problem, citing a poll last year that found most Americans worry, at least sometimes, that a loved one could be hurt by a firearm. More than 48,000 Americans died from gun injuries in 2022.
Murthy's advice promises to be controversial and will no doubt inflame Republican lawmakers, most of whom opposed Murthy's confirmation to the job, twice, over his statements on gun violence.
Murthy has issued warnings about troubling health trends in American life, including Social media use and solitude. He has shied away from issuing a similar warning about gun violence since his 2014 confirmation as surgeon general was stalled and nearly derailed by the gun lobby and Republicans who opposed his remarks above regarding firearms.
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Murthy ended by promising the Senate that he “did not intend to use my office as surgeon general as a bully pulpit on gun control.”
Then-President Donald Trump fired Murthy in 2017, but President Joe Biden renominated Murthy to the post in 2021. In his second confirmation hearing, he told senators that declaring guns a public health crisis would not would be his goal during a new mandate.
But he has faced growing pressure from some doctors and Democratic advocacy groups to talk more. A group of four former surgeons general asked the Biden administration to produce a report on the problem in 2022.
“Take this issue out of the realm of politics”
“Now is the time to take this issue out of the realm of politics and into the realm of public health, like we did with smoking more than half a century ago,” Murthy told the AP.
A 1964 Surgeon General's report that raised awareness of the dangers of smoking is largely credited with phasing out tobacco use and precipitating industry regulations.
Children and younger Americans in particular suffer from gun violence, Murthy notes in his advisory called “Gun Violence: A Public Health Crisis in America.” Gun suicide rates have increased significantly in recent years for Americans under 35. Children in the USA are far more likely to die from gunshot wounds than children in other countries, the research he assembled shows.
In addition to the new regulations, Murthy calls for increased research into gun violence and for the health care system, which is likely to be most receptive to his advice, to promote gun safety education during doctor visits.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last week gun injury rates last year it remained above previous levels COVID 19 pandemic for the fourth consecutive year. Preliminary CDC data on gun deaths also show last year's rates remained worse than 2019 across the country, despite a slowdown from peak levels in 2020 and 2021.
A new FBI report published on Monday proved it active shooters violently targeted members of the US public at a rate that was 89% higher between 2019 and 2023 than in the previous five-year period. Last year, 105 people were killed during those active shooter incidents, the highest level in recent years.
Public safety numbers released Monday by federal investigators showed a mix of slight year-over-year improvements in some areas of concern across the country, including a 4 percent decrease in active shooters in 2023 compared to 2022, and small declines in others metrics such as total casualties and “mass killing” events.
Across the United States, 244 victims were shot by active shooters last year; 139 were injured and 105 died. Compared to the previous year, total casualty rates (injury and death combined) were down from 313 in 2022, but five more people died in 2023 than in 2022.
These incidents represent only a fraction of the total number of gun violence. On average, gun homicides killed more than 53 people per day in the United States in 2022, according to CDC data.
Alexander Tin and Rob Legare contributed to this report.
