Dr. Vivek Murthy, the nation’s top doctor, issued the advisory as the U.S. grappled with another weekend marked by mass shootings that left dozens of people dead or wounded.
Doctors quickly praised Murthy’s advisory. The American Academy of Family Physicians, for example, has considered gun violence a public health epidemic for over a decade. It was the NRA, and Republicans who enjoy the powerful gun lobby’s support, that almost derailed Murthy’s confirmation as surgeon general a decade ago. Murthy became quieter on the issue of gun violence after his past statements almost cost him the job. He ended up promising the Senate that he did “not intend to use my office as surgeon general as a bully pulpit on gun control.”
“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. from the surgeon general that raised awareness about the dangers of smoking is largely credited with reducing tobacco use and precipitating regulations on the industry.