1y ago

U.S. surgeon general declares gun violence a public health crisis

www.cbsnews.com

politics @lemmy.world

Rapidcreek @lemmy.world

1y ago

U.S. surgeon general declares gun violence a public health crisis

www.cbsnews.com /news/surgeon-general-declares-gun-violence-public-health-crisis/

44 comments

But damned if we're gonna do anything about it.
Took long enough.
- https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/why-nra-blocking-obamas-surgeon-general-nominee/
  Obama wanted to do this, but the NRA blocked his choice for Surgeon General.
  
  I don't think people realize how far the NRA has gone to block ANY legislation that will reduce gun sales. We have bad gun laws not because of the lack of effort from government, but specifically how much effort the NRA has put in to stop it.
  They went bankrupt funding progun policy.
Waiting for the right to panic about stats they have been trying to hide for 30 years. Or they will force a recall vote to remove the Surgeon General.
Okay, so almost two mass shootings per day is the line at which a US official is willing to speak out against gun violence.
Good to know.
I would have said one mass shooting a week is really pushing it, but that's why they're the surgeon general.
Line in the sand: roughly two mass shootings everyday.
- I read a headline yesterday that a toddler has been injured by firearms every day for the last two years in the US. But abortion is the problem. As an 80s kid, no disrespect, but guns are gay.
  
  80s kid or not, sometimes we need to update the terms we use.
  
  I thought the headline was that there was a toddler shooting someone every two weeks. Although from what I read, that headline was a bit incorrect.
  
  toddler has injured themselves with a firearm every day for the last two years
  Should really take the gun away from that dude and teach him the difference between plural and singular 🤔
  
  Guns may be gay but I dont give a damn, give me the powder tube it goes well with my axe.
- Only two? We passed 2 a few years back. I've seen 8 but if the average isn't 4 I'll be surprised.
  
  Yup, the average for US mass shootings, as in multiple victims of gun violence from a single shooting, in 2024 up to June is 1.5 per day, or about one mass shooting in the US every 16 hours.
  You might be thinking of regular shootings, where only one person is injured, which is way more common and includes suicides and accidents.
Oh the shit fits the right will throw over this...
Surprised it's even legal. Let the conservative hoop jumping commence.
They’ll just put surgeon general’s warnings on public schools.
I'm here thinking: "but gunshots are not a disease? Wait, gunshots ARE treated at hospitals, and probably take a lot more resources to treat than, say, a fever. So it does fall within his purview in my uninformed opinion."
And then I thought "But why are people shooting each other? Maybe he should have declared a mental health crisis?"
So to conclude, I think it would be more productive to treat the mental health issue, and gun crimes should reduce. Of course, reducing the number and availability of guns would help too, but seems a harder problem to tackle.
- This is actually the main policy stance of the Liberal Gun Club. That we're spending all this time regulating guns and ignoring/underaddressing the root causes like mental health issues, domestic violence, toxic masculinity, income inequality, poverty, etc.
  Not to say that guns shouldn't be regulated to some extent, but with the way mental health is in America I'm pretty sure we'd just see a spike in knife and baseball bat crime and suicide by hanging if we somehow magically got rid of guns.
  https://theliberalgunclub.com/about-us/root-cause-mitigation-2/
  
  there's mentally ill people in every country but only in america do they have easy access to firearms with hardly any red tape.
Damn bullets are getting contagious. Make sure to wear a mask 👍
- Clearly, stupidity and/or strawman arguments are.
  
  It's called sarcasm.
Didnt we already go down this path, and it was found that it was already covered by multiple other agencies, and the Surgeon General had no jurisdiction?
- Congress effectively barred the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from funding gun violence research. It wasn’t until 2019 that Congress ended the two-decade freeze with $25 million in annual funding.
- The Surgeon General doesn't have jurisdiction to declare a public health crisis? Seems like exactly their jurisdiction. It's not like they're trying to pass or enforce any laws. Plus those other agencies are clearly derelict of duty, so I'm all for the any functional agencies doing whatever they can to force positive change on this troglodytic tire fire of a nation.
  
  Not on crimes, no.

44 comments