Gun violence is a health crisis

17 hours ago

By Sam Cabral, BBC News, Washington

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U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared gun violence a public health crisis, a move aimed at limiting the United States' role as a world leader in gun deaths.

In a first-of-its-kind report calling for action, the nation's chief medical officer noted that a majority of Americans or their family members have been victims of gun violence.

A public health approach could help, Dr. Murthy says, as it has with changes to the safety of wearing seat belts in vehicles and warnings about the health effects of smoking. He hopes to take politics out of an issue that has bitterly divided lawmakers and get Americans to examine the impacts and data.

“I want people to understand the full impact of gun violence on the United States,” Dr. Murthy told the BBC in an interview on Tuesday.

“For every life lost, there are two people who are shot and suffered mental and physical health consequences, family members who mourn the loss of a loved one, witnesses to these incidents, and millions of people who read and hear about gun violence every day in the newspapers.

Gun safety advocates are cautiously optimistic about Tuesday's advisory and see it as a step toward changing how the public views the issue.

“This is not a political issue,” Dr. Chethan Sathya, director of the Gun Violence Prevention Center at Northwell Health, told the BBC.

“It’s about safer communities, gun safety and violence prevention.”

Although experts acknowledge that the 40-page report is largely symbolic and does not mandate policy change, it is seen as a step forward in reducing deaths and changing the debate around guns in the country.

Dr. Sathya describes it as “legitimizing” a debate about using research and public health resources to address the problem with public health solutions.

“It’s not just a case of ‘we need background checks’ and we’re done,” he said.

“We need many nuanced policies and strategies to be able to address this problem in a way that makes sense for all Americans.”

This is largely due to recognition of the scale of the problem, according to the report.

As of 2020, guns are the leading cause of death among American children and youth.

And the gun death rate is 11.4 times higher in the United States than in 28 other high-income countries, making this a uniquely American problem.

We do not have to continue on this path, and we do not have to subject our children to the constant horror of gun violence in America, Dr. Murthy said.

“It will take the collective commitment of our nation to turn the tide.”

Dr. Jeffrey Swanson is among the public health specialists whose research is cited in the surgeon general's report.

He was a founding member of the Consortium for Risk-Based Firearms Policy, a group that helped create “alert laws,” which allow courts to temporarily bar people in crisis from access to fire arms. Whistleblower laws now exist in 21 states and the District of Columbia.

“Guns have taken on a symbolic role, as a sort of rail in the culture wars, and that's a very controversial issue,” he told the BBC.

“But if we start with a square inch of common ground, I think that’s an important step.”

“We don’t want our son to be another American gun death statistic”

Dr. Swanson, a sociologist and professor of psychiatry at Duke University, says it's all about asking the right questions and doing informed research to develop evidence-based policies.

“We really need to make progress in terms of changing the culture around guns and, if you look at the history of public health, there is precedent for that,” he said, citing the efforts of public health on the use of seat belts and cigarettes.

“Now people get in their cars and, regardless of their politics, put on their seat belts. They don't do it because there's a law. They do it because it feels natural, because our culture has changed.”

But while ten of the country's leading national medical associations endorsed Dr. Murthy's report, conservative backlash was swift.

On its social media channels, the National Rifle Association, the nation's largest gun lobby, fought back against what it called “an expansion of the Biden administration's war on respectful gun owners.” the law “.

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