(RepublicanDaily.org) – Of all people, the Surgeon General of the United States has sparked a new debate on gun rights, after he declared that gun violence was a public health crisis.
In a video posted on Twitter / X, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy announced that he has issued an advisory designating firearm violence as a public health crisis, one that “poses a serious threat to the health and well-being of our country.” The announcement marks the first time the U.S. Surgeon General has declared gun violence a public health crisis.
The advisory issued by the Surgeon General cited statistics that indicated that firearm-related injuries has been the leading cause of death among children and adolescents (aged 1-19) in the U.S., “surpassing motor vehicle crashes, cancer, and drug overdose and poisoning.”
Under a section entitled “Firearm Risk Reduction Prevention Strategies,” the advisory recommends initiatives such as requiring gun owners to always safely secure their firearms, along with related laws that would prevent children from accessing stored firearms. Another recommendation was for an expansion of purchaser licensing laws and the implementation of an expansion for universal background checks for firearms purchases, as well as the banning of large capacity magazines and assault weapons for civilian use. The advisory also calls for the implementation for federal regulatory safety standards for firearms made and sold in the United States.
The advisory has incensed a number of Republican lawmakers, such as Illinois Representative Mary Miller, who said that the advisory was an attack on Second Amendment rights. She vowed to “work to strip power from Biden’s corrupt HHS” (Department of Health & Human Services) as well as discontinue the funding of “unelected DC bureaucrats”, ostensibly alluding to the Surgeon General.
Republican Indiana Senator Mike Braun also criticized Murthy, whom he said backtracked on a statement he made during his confirmation hearing that he did not believe that gun violence was a public health crisis.
As such, Braun called for lawmakers to support his Protecting the Right to Keep and Bear Arms Act, which bars officials from the executive branch from “declaring a public health emergency to impose gun control.”
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