Former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s declaration of so-called “gun violence” as a public-health crisis is no more thanks to the Trump administration. The Department of Health and Human Services (HSS) reportedly removed the former surgeon general’s warning in accordance with President Donald Trump’s (R) executive order to protect Americans’ Second Amendment rights.
“Illegal violence of any sort is a crime issue, and as he again made clear during his recent speech at the Department of Justice, President Trump is committed to Making America Safe Again by empowering law enforcement to uphold law and order,” a White House official said in a statement about the change.
This change may be a result of President Trump’s executive order issued in early February, which stated, “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.”
This latest development is a welcome one as Murthy’s advisory, which declared “gun violence” as a public-health crisis, was dishonest from its inception. “Public health treats firearms as if they are germs transmitting a communicable disease, as opposed to treating their misuse as a criminal justice problem,” reported the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) at the time. “These are some of the reasons why so much of the public-health ‘research’ done on firearms turns out to be garbage and should be viewed with the upmost skepticism.”
Predictably, gun-control groups were not happy about this recent development.
“By removing this important public health advisory with lifesaving resources, President Trump has chosen to prioritize gun industry profits over protecting kids and families,” said the gun-control group Giffords Executive Director Emma Brown.
What these gun-control groups won’t admit, however, is that gun ownership amongst law-abiding Americans is not the cause of crime. Punishing these same law-abiding Americans will not solve or alleviate crime, but rather, is only virtue signaling.
As America’s 1st Freedom contributor Charles C. W. Cooke wrote of Murthy’s order, “Predictably, Murthy’s report is full of mistakes. Most egregiously, he repeats the lie that firearms are the number-one cause of death for children—which is true only if one includes 18- and 19-year-old gang members in the definition. But then, he would, because he’s not engaged in medicine, he’s engaged in propaganda.”
Indeed, this was always propaganda and its removal is a step closer to sanity and normalcy.
