Citation

Dyer O. BMJ 2024; 386: q1468.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2024, BMJ Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1136/bmj.q1468

PMID

38960608

Abstract

The US surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, has declared gun violence a public health crisis, calling on Americans to confront it with the same urgency that cut deaths from tobacco use and road traffic crashes.1

"Firearm violence is a public health crisis. Our failure to address it is a moral crisis," said Murthy in a video speech. It is the first time that a US surgeon general has declared gun violence a public health crisis, he noted, saying that he had been driven to act by a steady increase in gun deaths, which reached a three decade high in 2021.

In 2020 gunshot wounds became the leading cause of death among children and adolescents in the US, surpassing road deaths. In 2022 a total of 4603 Americans aged 1 to 19 died by gunshot, more than …

Language: en

Keywords

Humans; United States; *Public Health; *Gun Violence/prevention & control/statistics & numerical data; Firearms/legislation & jurisprudence