U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Tuesday declared gun violence a public health emergency and called on state and federal policymakers to take action.
Murthy’s office issued the first-of-its-kind advisory on firearms in America, saying gun violence threatens “the health and well-being of our country.”
“As a doctor, I’ve seen the consequences of firearm violence up close and the lives of the patients that I cared for over the years,” Murthy said in a video, announcing his office’s advisory. “Firearm violence is a public health crisis. Our failure to address it is a moral crisis.”
The announcement of the report comes on the two-year anniversary of the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first major piece of gun control legislation in 30 years.
Firearm deaths in children and adolescents steadily rose beginning in 2013 but dramatically increased in 2019, surpassing motor vehicle accidents as the leading cause of death for youth, according to the surgeon general’s report.
In 2022, 4,063 children and adolescents died by firearm.
Nearly 80% of adults also reported experiencing stress from the possibility of a mass shooting, while 33% said this fear prevents them from going to certain places or events.
“The collective trauma and fear that Americans are experiencing is contributing to the mental health challenges that we are facing today,” Murthy said. “All of us, regardless of our background or beliefs, want to live in a world that is safe for us and our children.”
Murthy called for Congress to take action at the federal level by banning automatic rifles, introducing universal background checks for purchasing guns, further regulating the industry, restricting gun use in public spaces, and penalizing improper storage.
The advisory also calls for community-level actions, such as implementing violence prevention programs and improving access to mental healthcare for those exposed to gun violence.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) responded to the report by calling rising gun deaths a “preventable crisis.”
“While we’re recognizing the two-year anniversary of the historic investments and reforms in our bipartisan gun law, the American people are demanding more—especially as guns are now the leading cause of death among children,” Durbin said in a press statement. “To my Republican colleagues: Come to the table and work with us to pass additional legislation to help save lives.”
Firearms advocates condemned the announcement as a partisan salvo against gun rights.
The National Rifle Association criticized the advisory as part of the Biden Administration’s “war on law-abiding gun owners,” while the lobbying group Gun Owners of America said that Murthy “abused his authority.”
The anti-gun violence group Moms Demand Action praised the advisory as a “historic step towards ending gun violence.
“When gun violence is the leading cause of death for children and teens in America, it must be declared a public health crisis and treated as such,” it said in a statement.
Murthy also called for greater federal funding of research into gun violence, which he noted is significantly less than money directed toward research toward comparable causes of mortality, such as heart disease or cancer.
Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began funding research on the correlation between firearms and domestic violence in the early 1990s, congressional appropriations for gun violence public health research were curtailed later in the decade.
Former Republican Rep. Jay Dickey of Arkansas drafted a provision into a 1996 CDC appropriations bill saying the agency’s gun violence research could not be used, “in whole or in part, to advocate or promote gun control.”
The so-called Dickey Amendment was extended to appropriations for the National Institutes of Health in 2011.
Beginning in 2019, however, Congress approved $25 million to the CDC and $12.5 million to the NIH for gun violence research under the stipulation that it does not promote gun control.
The report called for funding to improve data collection on firearms violence, examine short-term and long-term outcomes of firearm violence, and evaluate prevention strategies.
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“None of us should have to worry that going to the mall or a concert or a house of worship means putting our lives at risk or that we’ll get a call that a loved one in a moment of crisis has taken their own life with a firearm,” Murthy said.
