CREATORS: Gun Violence is a Health Epidemic in This Country

Matthew T. Mangino
CREATORS
May 5, 2025

Last summer, the U.S. surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, declared gun violence a public health crisis.

The advisory issued by the nation's top doctor was the first step to drive down gun deaths. Data from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) found that gun violence claimed 46,728 lives in 2023, down slightly from 2022, but still the third-highest annual gun-related deaths ever recorded in the United States.

Though they tend to get less public attention than gun-related murders, suicides have long accounted for the majority of U.S. gun deaths. In 2023, according to the Pew Research Center, 58% of all gun-related deaths in the U.S. were suicides.

With that in mind, only weeks into his new term, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to protect the Second Amendment: "The Second Amendment is an indispensable safeguard of security and liberty. It has preserved the right of the American people to protect ourselves, our families, and our freedoms since the founding of our great Nation. Because it is foundational to maintaining all other rights held by Americans, the right to keep and bear arms must not be infringed."

In March, consistent with the President's order, the administration removed the advisory on gun violence as a public health issue from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' website.

According to The Guardian, the CDC website "Firearm Violence in America," where the advisory had been posted, was filled with data and information about the ripple effects of shootings, the prevalence of firearm suicides and the number of American children and adolescents who have been shot and killed.

The removal of the website and the Surgeon General's warning is unconscionable. Gun violence is a health epidemic for young people in this country.

A report released in September of 2024, by the Center for Gun Violence Solutions at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, based on data from the CDC, found for the third straight year, firearms killed more children and teens, ages 1 to 17, than any other causes of death, including car crashes and cancer.

The CDC is part of the federal Department of Health and Human Services. HHS is slashing personnel from the CDC. In a recently issued fact sheet, HHS said the CDC's workforce was being reduced by 2,400 people, and the goal is to streamline divisions within the agency and get rid of redundancies.

Last month, the CDC's Injury Center and its Division of Violence Prevention — a unit that studies and works to prevent gun deaths and injuries — lost personnel.

According to National Public Radio, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said, "(T)he reality is clear: what we've been doing isn't working. Despite spending $1.9 trillion in annual costs, Americans are getting sicker every year."

More than half a century ago, when Kennedy's father was the U.S. Attorney General, Luther L. Terry, M.D., Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service, released the first report of the Surgeon General's Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health. Terry convened a committee of specialists who reviewed some 7,000 scientific articles and worked with more than 150 consultants to formulate the report, finding that cigarette smoking caused lung cancer.

The report spawned numerous other efforts at various levels of government to curb smoking, including the now-familiar surgeon general's warning on the side of cigarette packages, increased taxation, restrictions on advertising and limiting public areas where people can smoke, along with programs and products to help people kick the habit.

Fortunately, when former President Richard Nixon was elected in 1968, he didn't undo the work of Terry, nor has any president since. Why was that fortunate for America?

As a result of Terry's groundbreaking health advisory, it is estimated that, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association, between 1964 and 2014, 8 million lives were saved due to pervasive tobacco-control measures.

Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George P.C. His book The Executioner's Toll, 2010 was released by McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and follow him on Twitter @MatthewTMangino.

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