Armed violence is a “public health crisis,” said this Tuesday the main health official in the United States, who published an exhaustive report in which he calls for the control of long-range firearms, a measure that has historically faced harsh opposition. opposition.
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s ruling is the first major report on gun violence by his office, which has limited authority but plays an important role in public health issues.
“Gun violence is an urgent public health crisis that has led to loss of life, profound and unimaginable pain for too many Americans,” Murthy said in a statement.
“We do not have to continue down this path and we do not have to subject our children to the horror of gun violence. All Americans deserve to live free from gun violence, as well as the fear and devastation that it brings “he asserted.
The report cites government and other data showing the United States is an outlier in firearm deaths and injuries, especially among children.
In recent years, firearms have become the leading cause of death among Americans ages 1 to 19, above traffic accidents, according to the report.
In 2022, 48,204 people died as a result of firearms, including suicides.
“It will take our nation’s collective commitment to turn the tide on gun violence,” Murthy said, calling for investments in research, community education programs, mental health support and stricter controls on gun purchases. .
A similar report on tobacco in the 1960s is seen as a key first step in raising awareness about its danger, which ultimately led to new regulations and a sharp drop in consumption.
– “Moral crisis” –
“The collective toll of gun violence on our nation’s mental health is immense,” Murthy wrote on social network consequences”.
“This is an avoidable public health crisis,” but “our inability to address it is a moral crisis,” he said, calling for action with “clarity, courage and urgency.”
Their recommendations include tighter gun storage, widespread background checks on buyers, confiscating guns from dangerous people such as violent spouses, and banning assault rifles and high-capacity magazines.
These measures, long supported by Democratic President Joe Biden, require political agreement in Congress before they can be implemented at the federal level.
Republicans largely oppose the regulations based on the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which protects the right to own firearms.
“To my Republican colleagues: Come to the negotiating table and work with us to pass legislation that will help save lives,” influential Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said Tuesday.
– Weapon purchases –
The influential gun lobby, the NRA, was quick to denounce the report as “an extension of the Biden administration’s war on law-abiding gun owners.”
“America has a crime problem caused by criminals,” said the organization’s executive director, Randy Kozuch.
At the opening of a ballistics analysis center in Cleveland, Ohio, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Tuesday that since the passage of the bipartisan Safe Communities Act two years ago – which introduced new restrictions on guns – 800 purchases had been stopped. of firearms “by young people who are legally prohibited from obtaining weapons.
Garland also said the Justice Department had that day released an interim final rule allowing gun sellers to check an FBI database to see if firearms sold to them had been reported stolen.
However, such checks remain voluntary, the Justice Department said.
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