Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., says gun violence should be considered a public health issue, and she is promoting legislation that would require the federal government to treat it as such.

Kelly, who represents a deep-blue Chicagoland district, is the author of a first-of-its-kind bill to require the surgeon general to study gun violence as a public health issue. The nation’s leading health expert would examine shootings the way he does diabetes or heart disease, delivering an annual report to Congress about the economic and healthcare costs as well as the mental health effects of gun violence.