Despite a searing June day with temperatures expected to enter triple digits across much of the country, gun owners felt a chill on Tuesday as a 35-page advisory from the Surgeon General sparked a media frenzy by declaring that “gun violence” is a public health crisis in the U.S. Even more startling is the claim that “gun violence is the leading cause of death for children and adolescents ages 0-19 in the United States.”
“The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on Firearm Violence: A Public Health Crisis in America” is filled with colorful charts and even more colorful language that paints a picture of an America where the majority of the population suffers from a fear of “gun violence” so debilitating that it affects their mental health.
“Nearly six in 10 U.S. adults say that they worry ‘sometimes,’ ‘almost every day,’ or ‘every day,’ about a loved one being a victim of firearm violence. Such high levels of exposure to firearm violence for both children and adults give rise to a cycle of trauma and fear within our communities, contributing to the nation’s mental health crisis.”
The advisory from Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, long a vocal proponent of restrictive gun laws, comes just days before the first presidential debate, evidence that it’s clearly a political stunt that “reeks of election-year politics,” noted National Shooting Sports Foundation managing director Mark Oliva.
“Unfortunately, (Murthy) twists facts and repeats false narratives that have been debunked by Newsweek, The Washington Post, and others. He claims that firearms are the leading cause of death among children, yet it has been proven that the data sets to arrive at the conclusion include adults through the age of 19,” Oliva explained.
The National Safety Council interprets the data differently, showing firearms as at most the fifth leading cause of death for any age group under 24 from the years 2002 to 2022. Of U.S. firearm-related deaths among all age groups in 2022, 56 percent were suicides. Notably, suicides account for more than half of firearm-related deaths recorded annually in the U.S.
A 2018 PBS News Hour report noted, “While mass shootings … capture the most media attention, they are responsible for a small sliver of overall gun deaths in the United States.” The PBS report cites researchers Frederick P. Rivara, David M. Studdert, and Garen J. Wintemute, who wrote in an editorial published in JAMA, “Although mass shootings and terrorist attacks are the most visible form of gun violence, they account for only a small fraction of the public health burden of firearm-related morbidity and mortality.”
While the surgeon general’s new report acknowledges that mass shooting incidents account for “a relatively small number” of firearm-related deaths, it emphasizes an “outsized collective trauma on society and … strong negative effect on the public’s perception of safety.”
“More than three‑quarters of adults (79%) in the U.S. report experiencing stress from the possibility of a mass shooting, and one in three adults (33%) say fear prevents them from going to certain places or events,” the advisory states.
Scathing rebukes of the surgeon general’s claims echoed across the 2A community Tuesday:
“The real crisis in America is the failed policies of the Biden administration. Instead of focusing on locking up felons and disarming criminal gangs, he wants to disarm millions of honest gun owners whose only crime is that we exercise our right to keep and bear arms.” – Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
"Politicians and their agents are the real public health threat." – Brandon Combs, Firearms Policy Coalition
“They also rely on counting the criminal misuse of firearms to attempt to make the case for more gun control. Crime is a law enforcement concern. There is no medical prescription to cure America of criminals who ignore the law ... Surgeon General Murthy is proving himself to be a gun control advocated masquerading as a medical official in white lab coat.” – Mark Oliva, National Shooting Sports Foundation
“The Biden administration has continually fought to restrict the rights of responsibly armed gun owners while simultaneously turning a blind eye to the surging crime rates in cities across the country. Violent crime and the failure of prosecutors to hold criminals accountable is the real public health crisis in America today.” – Katie Pointer Baney, U.S. Concealed Carry Association
Murthy’s announcement follows President Biden’s recent attempts to build momentum for more promised quashing of 2A rights. In a fanciful address at an Everytown event in D.C. just hours after his son Hunter Biden was convicted on federal firearms charges, he explained that gun owners shouldn’t expect to use firearms to defend themselves against government overreach.
“They need F-15s. They don’t need a rifle,” Biden told an agreeable crowd of gun control advocates, going on to remind them that “no one needs a magazine that can hold 200 shells.”
Murthy has been a polarizing figure in the national gun conversation as far back as 2014 when he was first tapped to become Obama's Surgeon General. He was the president and founder of "Doctors for Obama in 2008, which later morphed into "Doctors for America." The organization pushed for increased gun regulation as a matter of public health, such as in their controversial "Docs vs. Glocks" campaign, and referred to guns as "the worst public health crisis you’ve never heard of" while actively petitioning the public and politicians for more gun control. Installed to his post in 2015 in a tough up-hill battle that included a narrow 51-43 vote of confirmation in the Senate, he was canned by Trump in 2017, replaced by a career Public Health Service officer, but returned as part of the Biden administration.
Banner photo: From left, Rashmi, sister of Surgeon General Vice Adm. Vivek Murthy, smiles while putting the new rank on her brother as President Joe Biden looks on in Conmy Hall on the Fort Myer portion of Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall April 22, 2015. Murthy became the 19th and youngest surgeon general in U.S. history upon his appointment to President Biden's cabinet. (Photo and caption: U.S. Army)
