Vivek Murthy’s opinion was issued after the country faced another summer weekend marked by mass shootings that left dozens dead and injured.
The Surgeon General of the United States declared this Tuesday that gun violence is a public health crisis, due to the rapid increase in the number of deaths and injuries from firearms in the country.
The ruling issued by Vivek Murthy, the United States’ top medical official, was issued after the country faced another summer weekend marked by mass shootings that left dozens dead and injured.
“Toward People want to be able to walk around their neighborhoods and be safe.“Declared Murthy, in a telephone interview with the American news agency Associated Press (AP).
“America should be a place where we can all go to school, to work, to the supermarket, to our place of worship, without having to worry that this could put our lives at risk,” he said.
To reduce the number of gun deaths, Murthy calls on US authorities to ban automatic rifles, impose general background checks on gun purchases, regulate the industrypass laws that restrict their use in public spaces and penalize people who do not store their weapons safely.
None of these suggestions can be implemented nationally without legislation passed by Congress, which typically reverses gun control measures. However, some state parliaments have adopted or may consider some of the Director-General of Health’s proposals.
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According to the person in charge, there is a “Broad consensus“That gun violence is a problem, referring to a survey conducted last year that revealed that the majority of American citizens worry, at least sometimes, about the possibility of a family member being injured by a gun of fire.
In 2022, more than 48,000 Americans will die from gunshot wounds.
Doctors were quick to praise Murthy’s advice. The American Academy of Family Physicians, for example, has considered gun violence a public health epidemic for more than a decade.
“Family physicians have long understood and seen firsthand the devastating impact gun violence has on our patients and the communities we serve,” the group’s president, Steven Furr, said in a statement.
Murthy’s appeal, however, promises to be controversial among the gun lobby and will certainly anger Republican members of Congress, most of whom opposed (twice) his confirmation to the position because of his statements on gun violence. .
The National Rifle Association (NRA) was quick to criticize Murthy’s advice.
“This is an extension of the Government’s war. [do Presidente norte-americano, Joe] Biden against law-abiding gun owners,” highlighted the president of the organization, Randy Kozuch, in a statement posted on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
It was the NRA and Republicans who enjoyed the support of the powerful gun lobby that nearly prevented Murthy’s confirmation as Surgeon General a decade ago.
Murthy became more silent on the issue of gun violence after his previous statements nearly cost him his job and he ended up promising the Senate that he “had no intention of using the director general position as a pulpit for gun control.”
In 2017, then-President Donald Trump fired Murthy, but Democrat Joe Biden reappointed him to the position in 2021.
Murthy has published warnings about worrying trends for the health of North American society, including loneliness and the use of social networks.
This month, in an op-ed in The New York Times, he claimed that social media has contributed to a mental health crisis among the country’s young people and called on Congress to impose warning labels on digital platforms similar to those on cigarette packs.
But he has also faced increasing pressure from some doctors and Democratic activist groups to speak out more. A group of four former Surgeon Generals asked the Biden administration in 2022 to produce a report on the problem.
“It’s time to eliminate this problem [do controlo de armas de fogo] the domain of politics and place it in the field of public healthlike we did with smoking more than half a century ago,” Murthy told the AP.
It was a 1964 report by the then Director-General of Health that raised awareness about the dangers of smoking and is widely credited with reducing tobacco consumption and driving regulation of the sector.
Murthy now hopes that his opinion on guns will also change perspectives on this issue. He has been encouraged by some progress in Congress, including the passage of the bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022, which improved background checks related to firearms.
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A White House report seen by the AP indicates that more extensive background checks have prevented about 800 firearm sales to people under 21.
Additionally, more than 500 people, including some linked to transnational cartels and organized crime networks, have been charged with gun trafficking and other crimes under landmark gun safety legislation.
American children and youth, in particular, suffer from gun violence, Murthy notes in his opinion, titled “Gun Violence: A Public Health Crisis in America.”
Firearm suicide rates have increased nearly 70% among people ages 10 to 14. Toward Children in the United States are much more likely to die. for injuries caused by firearms than children in other countries, as demonstrated by the information he collected.
Even when children are not direct victims of a shooting, they can suffer the mental health consequences of gun violence, according to the report.
About half of teenagers in the United States fear a school shooting. And in areas that were hit by a deadly school shooting, antidepressant use among youth increased by more than 20%.
In addition to the new regulations, Murthy calls for more research into gun violence in the country and for the national healthcare system to promote and educate patients about gun safety and proper storage during regular appointments.
Source: Observadora
