U.S. Surgeon General Declares Firearm Violence a Public Health Crisis

Posted by Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity on July 16, 2024

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy has declared gun violence a public health crisis Tuesday and called on the nation to address it with the same vigor used to reduce deaths and injuries from tobacco and motor vehicle crashes. The surgeon general’s advisory marked the first time the nation’s leading voice on public health — the same office that in the 1960s highlighted the lethal consequences of cigarette smoking — had issued an urgent pronouncement on deaths related to firearms. The 39-page advisory underscores the significant physical and mental toll of gun violence on communities nationwide. As of 2020, firearm-related injuries had become the leading cause of death for children and adolescents ages 1 to 19 in the United States. Gun-related deaths for youths exceed those from vehicular accidents, cancer and heart disease.

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