The Trump administration has removed former surgeon general Vivek Murthyās advisory on gun violence as a public health issue from the US Department of Health and Human Servicesā website. This move was made to comply with Donald Trumpās executive order to protect second amendment rights, a White House official told the Guardian.
The āfirearm violence in Americaā page, 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. Now, when someone reaches the site they will be met with a āpage not foundā message.
When it was originally released last summer, Murthyās advisory was met with praise from violence prevention and research groups, and was lambasted by second amendment law centers and advocacy groups that argued the Biden administration was using public health as a cloak to push forward more gun control.
āThis is an extension of the Biden Administrationās war on law-abiding gun owners. America has a crime problem caused by criminals,ā the National Rifle Association (NRA) said in a statement posted to X on 25 July 2024.
But Daniel Semenza, a firearm violence researcher with Rutgers University, argues that talking about gun violence through a public health lens is meant to ābring the heat downā about a deeply politicized issue and broaden what prevention can look like.
In 2023, nearly 47,000 people died by firearms, most of them suicides.
āWhen people read gun violence is a public health problem, they read guns are a public health problem,ā Semenza said. āThis idea actually removes the politics from the issue and is an engine to get us on the same page. [The removal] feels like an unnecessary and mean-spirited way to politicize something that people have actively been trying to bring people together on.ā
The removal of Murthyās advisory and the rest of the information on the page is one of the thousands of pieces of health information and research removed from federal websites. They include information about vaccines, health risks among youth and gender-based violence, the New York Times reported.
Some of these pages have been restored following a court order, and it is unclear whether the removal of the āfirearm violence in Americaā will see the same fate.
In response to the Guardianās question about the removal of webpages, the White House said: āIllegal 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.ā
While researchers and violence prevention advocates have described gun violence ā including both suicides and homicides ā as a public health issue for more than a decade, itās only recently that this language has entered mainstream discourse. Experts across the field of violence prevention argue that this updated lens is meant to reflect the widespread impacts of shootings on entire communities and offer solutions to violence beyond law enforcement and firearm restrictions and policy.
This new framing has also led to more dollars from federal government offices, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health, for research that could illuminate preventive methods. These efforts were supercharged with the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, passed in June 2022, which allocated millions of dollars for research into the unseen consequences of shootings. It also allowed researchers to evaluate groups that are working on the ground in the nationās most underserved communities where shootings happen most.
If this work doesnāt continue or is severely pared down, years of progress and gun violence status as a public health is at risk of being lost, Semenza said.
āThe vernacular of gun violence as a public health issue that has shaped in the last five to 10 years of research and advocacy is under direct threat,ā he said. āIām really disheartened and sad to hear about it. But itās not because Iām surprised. This is a clear example of this administration pulling the wool over peopleās eyes and being disingenuous about the things that harm people who are most vulnerable.ā