U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy recently issued a national health advisory for Americans that many experts say is long overdue.
The subject is gun violence.
As the recommendations detail, gun violence has been steadily increasing and becoming more devastating across the United States over the past few years, and is now “the leading cause of death among children and young people.”
The recommendations also note that the impacts of gun violence go beyond “deaths and injuries” — it “has cascading harms to young people, families, communities, and others,” including “the detrimental effects of this increase on the mental health of the general public.”
“Nearly six in 10 U.S. adults worry ‘sometime,’ ‘almost every day,’ or ‘every day’ that a loved one will be a victim of gun violence,” a release accompanying the report said. “The impacts of this public health crisis go far beyond physical health, causing collective trauma across society and demanding increased attention.”
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Not surprisingly, Murthy’s recommendation sparked mixed reactions: While many medical experts praised it, the National Rifle Association attacked it, The Associated Press reported.
“Family physicians have long understood and seen firsthand the devastating impact gun violence has on patients and the communities we serve,” the president of the American Academy of Family Physicians said in a statement.
But the NRA’s president denounced the announcement as “an extension of the Biden Administration’s war on law-abiding gun owners.”
While Murthy’s announcement is unlikely to have an immediate impact on the ground, the hope is that it may open the door to further public health research on the issue, much like the Surgeon General’s efforts paved the way for stronger national efforts against smoking.
The recommendation’s conclusion states:
“A public health approach can guide our strategies and actions, as has been successful in the past in tackling tobacco-related diseases and motor vehicle crashes. It is up to us to approach this generational challenge with the urgency and clarity that is needed now. The safety and well-being of our children and future generations are at stake.”
The following figures are from the advisory:
#1 – Ranking of gun deaths among causes of death among children and adolescents in the United States, 2020-2022
2020 – First year that gun deaths surpassed car deaths in this group
54 – Percentage of U.S. adults who say they or their family have experienced a firearm-related incident
twenty one – Percentage of people who said they have been threatened with a gun
19 – Percentage of people who report a family history of gun death (including suicide)
17 – Percentage of people who say they have witnessed someone being shot
20 – Increase in firearm-related suicides from 2012 to 2022
68 – Increase in the proportion of children aged 10-14
36.4 – Gun deaths per million children and teens in the United States in 2019
6.4 – Canada’s share – the second highest share
Over 600 – Number of mass shootings in the United States per year between 2020 and 2023
Under 400 – Average from 2015 to 2018
79 – Percentage of American adults who feel stressed by the possibility of a mass shooting
51 – Percentage of U.S. teens (ages 14-17) who worry that a shooting will happen at their school or their neighborhood school
33 – Percentage of people who say fear prevents them from going to certain places or events.
56 – Percentage of unintentional firearm deaths among children and adolescents that occur at home
$878 million – The amount of federal funding spent on research on children and adolescents involved in motor vehicle accidents between 2008 and 2017
$12 million – Amount spent on research into firearm injury prevention for children and adolescents during the same period
