Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy declared gun violence a “public health crisis” Tuesday, pushing a ban on certain firearms and calling for the implementation of universal background checks.
The Associated Press reported Murthy emphasized there were 48,000 gun deaths in the United States in 2022. That figure includes homicides, suicides, and accidential firearm deaths.
After the release of the announcement Murthy said, “America should be a place where all of us can go to school, go to work, go to the supermarket, go to our house of worship, without having to worry that that’s going to put our life at risk.”
He added, “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.”
CBS News noted that Murthy called for a ban on “automatic rifles” and for new laws restricting the carrying of firearms in public places.
On CBS Mornings Murthy said,, “The good news is there’s a lot we can do. There are, for example, community violence intervention programs that we can invest in. There are safe storage education programs that we can expand. There are firearm risk reduction strategies like background checks and other measures that would seek to create time and space between firearms and individuals who would seek to harm themselves and others.”
California has had an ‘assault weapons” ban since the 1980s and universal background checks since the 1990s. On Monday, Breitbart News pointed to FBI data showing California led the nation in “active shooter incidents” in 2023.
WATCH — AWR Hawkins: Universal Background Checks = Gun Registry
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.