U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy declared gun violence a public health crisis on Tuesday.
He also called for a ban on assault weapons and the civilian use of large-capacity magazines, as reported by Just The News.
“Firearm violence is an urgent public health crisis that has led to loss of life, unimaginable pain, and profound grief for far too many Americans,” Murthy stated.
The outlet added that medical organizations rallied behind his declaration.
The American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Public Health Association, American College of Surgeons and the YWCA all voiced their support in a press release, per Just The News.
Some of the statistics Murthy showed during his declaration included a “recent” nationally representative survey that stated 54 percent of U.S. adults “report that they, or a family member, have experienced a firearm-related incident.”
Among those respondents “21 percent have been threatened with a firearm,” and “19 percent have a family member who was killed by a firearm (including by suicide),” per the survey.
One graphic stated “firearm violence leads to cascading harm across society,” while another read, “rate of firearm-related suicide increased by 20 percent across the population”–from 2021 to 2022–”with the highest increase among younger people.”
A later shown graphic bluntly stated: “firearms are the leading cause of death for children and adolescents.”
Murthy elaborated on this point on X: “What is especially devastating is how this has affected our kids.”
“Firearm violence is now the leading cause of death among children and adolescents—more than car accidents or drug overdoses,” he said.
Some of the surgeon general’s suggestions for how to fix this new “public health crisis” include creating safer conditions in public places related to firearm use and carry, in addition to treating firearms like “other consumer products.”
Murthy also called for effective removal policies, universal background checks, expanding purchaser licensing laws and banning assault weapons plus large-capacity magazines for civilians.
Critics swiftly blasted Murthy following his declaration, with Not The Bee’s Annie Oakley ripping the graphics in particular for failing to mention abortion as a leading cause of child deaths.
Other users called out Murthy for ignoring mental health.
“I think you missed one very important killer there, Mr. Murthy,” Oakley penned. “And until you guys stop pretending it’s okay to kill children in the womb, it’s gonna be hard to take you seriously when you try to use the death of children to push gun confiscation.”
Gun Owners of America accused Murthy of “abusing his authority” with his declaration; a sentiment Rep. Mary Miller echoed, calling out Biden for violating the Second Amendment.
“I will work to strip power from Biden’s corrupt HHS and to cut all funding for the unelected DC bureaucrats who think they can violate your Constitutional rights!” she continued.
The Federalist’s David Harsany posted, “Even if he was right, Vivek Murthy’s goal of taking gun ownership out of the ‘realm of politics’ is unconstitutional.”
“But his scaremongering is highly misleading and easily debunked,” he added, accompanied with a post to his article on the matter in which he argues Murthy’s attempt to “take your guns” is a “bad-faith attempt.”
“Murthy dishonestly conflates suicides (a mental health issue) with homicides (a criminality issue) to make sweeping contentions about firearms,” Harsany penned.
“Murthy even throws in incidents where guns are used in self-defense as a “harm” plaguing the nation’s health.”
Harsany concluded by writing, “Murthy gives away the game when he ends his thread by contending that our “failure to address” gun violence “is a moral crisis.” (I thought it was a health crisis?)”
He then argued that the only way to address this is for Murthy to align with “the Democrats’ long-standing policy goals of restricting Second Amendment rights,” pointing to that being “the whole reason for this bogus PR campaign.”
