Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported rates of gun injuries last year remained above levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic for a fourth straight year. Preliminary CDC data on gun deaths also show rates last year remained worse than in 2019 nationwide, despite a slowdown off of peak levels in 2020 and 2021.
A new FBI report released Monday showed that active shooters violently targeted members of the public across the U.S. at a rate that was 89% higher from 2019 to 2023 than in the previous five-year period. Last year, 105 individuals were killed during those active shooting incidents, the highest level in recent years.
The public safety numbers released Monday by federal investigators showed a mix of slight year-over-year improvements in some areas of concern across the country — including a 4% decrease in active shootings in 2023 compared to 2022 — and small drops in other metrics, like total casualties and "mass killing" events.
Throughout the U.S., 244 victims were shot by active shooters last year; 139 were injured and 105 were killed. Compared to the previous year, total casualty rates — injuries and deaths combined — were down from 313 in 2022, but five more people were killed in 2023 than in 2022.
Those incidents represent just a fraction of the overall toll of gun violence. On average, gun homicides killed more than 53 people per day in the U.S. in 2022, according to CDC data.
Then-President Donald Trump dismissed Murthy in 2017, but President Joe Biden nominated Murthy again to the position in 2021. At his second confirmation hearing, he told senators that declaring guns a public health crisis would not be his focus during a new term.
But he has faced mounting pressure from some doctors and Democratic advocacy groups to speak out more. A group of four former surgeon generals asked the Biden administration to produce a report on the problem in 2022.
"Take this issue out of the realm of politics"
"It is now time for us to take this issue out of the realm of politics and put it in the realm of public health, the way we did with smoking more than a half century ago," Murthy told the AP.
A 1964 report from the surgeon general that raised awareness about the dangers of smoking is largely credited with snubbing out tobacco use and precipitating regulations on the industry.
Children and younger Americans, in particular, are suffering from gun violence, Murthy notes in his advisory called "Firearm Violence: A Public Health Crisis in America." Suicide by gun rates have increased significantly in recent years for Americans under the age of 35. Children in the U.S. are far more likely to die from gun wounds than children in other countries, the research he gathered shows.
"My hope is that if we understand this as a kid's issue that we will raise it on the priority list, that we will see it not as a political issue but as a public health issue that should concern all of us," Murthy said.
In addition to new regulations, Murthy calls for an increase on gun violence research and for the health system — which is likely to be more amenable to his advisory — to promote gun safety education during doctor visits.
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