Gun violence declared a public health crisis by the US Surgeon General

FGun violence is officially a public health crisis in the US – or so says Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. In a new advice Published Tuesday, Murthy draws attention to the health consequences of gun violence, describing the scale of the crisis while outlining a roadmap of research and policy interventions to curb its effects.

“My hope is that identifying the profound impact and profound impact of gun violence in our country … can take it firmly out of the realm of politics and into the realm of public health, which is where it belongs ,” Murthy told STAT. .

Gun violence is hardly a new problem in the US, and in recent years in organizations as well including the American Medical Association have highlighted that the burden of firearm injuries and deaths in the country has risen to the level of a public health threat. But now that he’s been working on the issue of gun violence for more than a decade, Murthy says the issue has reached a new level of urgency.

“Gun violence has now become the leading cause of death among children and teens,” Murthy said. According to the report, more than 4,600 deaths under the age of 19 were caused by gun violence in 2022, and 54% of all U.S. adults say they or a family member have experienced a firearm-related incident. About 60% of Americans worry about losing someone they care about to gun violence.

The impact is great. “There are people who are shot and survive and have to live with lifelong injuries, the people who witness the events, the people who are lost, the family members of those who are lost, and the people across the country who read about it and to belong. that violence every day,” Murthy said. “The resonance in mental health is really quite profound.”

While Americans are acutely aware of the threat of gun violence, experts think the surgeon general’s authority has the potential to make a difference. “It is not common for a general surgeon to issue these types of reports. I think it’s a pretty big problem,” said Daniel Webster, a health professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a researcher at the Center for Gun Violence Solutions. “I strongly suspect that this will be the type of report that is often cited and that people will pay attention to.”

While Webster acknowledges that reactions to the report may be biased, he also thinks it is difficult to dismiss an evidence-based report from the surgeon general. “This report cites many studies, and provides some guidance on effective ways to reduce the problem of gun violence, recognizing that there are many forms of gun violence and that certain strategies are more tailored to one form than others “, he said. .

In particular, the guidance notes that firearm deaths do not affect everyone in the same way. Boys and men are five times more likely to die from firearm injuries than their female counterparts, even though half of homicides in intimate partner violence cases are committed with firearms. Black people had the highest rate of firearm-related homicides, while white people over the age of 45 had the highest rate of suicide by firearm.

By 2022, more than half of all firearm deaths were the result of suicide.

The surgeon general’s plan to address gun violence begins with a call for investments in research and data. This is essential for strengthening the body of evidence to argue for policy changes, says Andrew Morral, a senior behavioral scientist who co-leads the work on gun violence at the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit think tank.

“Think of how much research was done on the dangers of smoking before the number of smokers in the U.S. started to decline and before people started to recognize that smoking causes cancer,” Morral said. Similar levels of overwhelming evidence are needed to support public health interventions and move the needle, he said. The limited research available has already made a difference: for example, evidence on child access prevention has finally informed safe gun storage laws.

In addition to partisan criticism, public health experts can debate the advisory body’s position, Morral said. “There is some disagreement in our society about whether to focus on the guns themselves and gun violence, or on violence. Whether you should focus on suicide by firearm or on suicide,” he said. “Some people will ask this report: why are we focusing on the tool and not on the problem?”

Morral says there is strong evidence to address these criticisms – particularly research showing that the ease of killing with a firearm is increasing the death toll, and that many murders and suicides simply wouldn’t happen without a firearm – that could be included in the advice.

In addition to research, the report discusses proven intervention strategies, including safe storage education, violence prevention programs, and addressing the social determinants that increase the risk of gun violence. It also makes recommendations for policymakers, including implementing background checks and firearm disposal policies. Finally, it emphasizes the importance of mental health care, including for substance use disorders, both as a way to prevent gun violence and to provide support to those affected by firearm deaths and injuries.

The report centers on the topic of law enforcement, which contributes to the toll — police kill about 1,100 people in the U.S. each year — and is a potential way to reduce violence, Webster said. “I certainly recognize that there are circumstances where people are injured or killed as a result of gun violence by police; these are complete tragedies,” Murthy said, “and we also recognize the misery this is causing in public safety institutions.” He hopes, he said, that the strategies outlined in the opinion will start a conversation that expands to other areas, including the role of law enforcement in reducing gun fatalities.

In 2023, Webster noted, more recent data was reported by the Arms Violence Archive and the University of Chicago Live crime tracker have suggested that gun violence is declining. “I had hoped and expected that there would be some very encouraging data points,” he said. “We must take courage in this and recognize that this is not an inevitable phenomenon. It is a phenomenon that changes and responds to public actions.”

Some of the nation’s leading medical organizations — including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Medical Association — issued statements supporting the advisory, saying it raises awareness of the public health implications of gun violence. and at the same time offer concrete solutions.

“The most important thing I want people to understand is not the scope and magnitude of this crisis, but that there is a solution,” Murthy said. “There are things we can do to actually address gun violence in America.”

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. For TTY users, use your preferred relay service or dial 711 then 988.