Trump administration deletes Surgeon General webpage with advisory on gun violence

WASHINGTON — GIFFORDS, the national gun violence prevention organization founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, responded to the Trump administration’s removal of the Surgeon General June 2024 advisory declaring gun violence a public health crisis from its website. The full advisory can be found here. When the advisory was issued, public health officials applauded the news. The American Medical Association declared gun violence a public health crisis in 2016. As a reminder, gun violence is the leading cause of death for American children and adolescents.

“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 GIFFORDS Executive Director Emma Brown. “Guns have been the number one killer of American children and adolescents since 2020, and non-partisan health care experts have understood gun violence as a public health crisis for years. Under President Trump’s first term, gun homicides rose 34%. With the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and the Surgeon General’s advisory, we have seen the first meaningful reduction in gun deaths in years.”

GIFFORDS has been a long-time advocate for gun violence to be treated as a public health emergency. In 2020, GIFFORDS and the Center for American Progress authored a memo for the incoming Department of Health and Human Services on “​Gun Violence as a Public Health Emergency.” In 2021, GIFFORDS published a report on the growing epidemic of gun violence during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2013, GIFFORDS Law Center and National Physicians Alliance authored a report entitled “Gun Safety & Public Health: Policy Recommendations for a More Secure America.” GIFFORDS Law Center joined eight health professional organizations and the American Bar Association in signing “Firearm-Related Injury and Death in the United States: A Call to Action” in 2015. In late 2018, GIFFORDS partnered with 14 leading medical and public health groups in an effort to urge Congress to fund research through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to address America’s gun violence crisis. These reports laid the foundation for the now widely understood breath and severity of the epidemics.