An Assault Weapons Ban On American Streets? Not While Conservatives Control Congress

Eric Wilson is the progressive running in the western Wisconsin swing district that Republican Derrick Van Orden captured last cycle largely because Democrats ran a Republican-lite conservaDem. Voters opted to go for the real Republican instead of the confused, fake one. This cycle there are two others just like him running: Rebecca Cooke and Katrina Shankland… and then there’s Eric, who no one if going to mistake for some kind of a Republican.

Yesterday, in a discussion of gun safety, he told us that “The number 1 killer of children in Wisconsin is gun violence. We cannot be silent anymore. The catalyst for me to jump into this race was the shooting at Club Q. I could no longer sit back well fellow members of my LGBT community are slaughtered. We are the only modern country with this problem, and we seem all too content to allow it to continue. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. We need to ban bump stocks and high capacity magazines, and we need background checks. And we need to bring back the assault weapons ban. I'm the only one in my race talking about these common sense gun reforms that everybody agrees with. Derrick Van Orden tried to take a loaded gun through the airport and my primary opponents can't bring themselves to acknowledge there is a problem. That's not the type of leadership we need.” This is.

Also yesterday, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy infuriated Republicans like Derrick Van Orden by declaring that gun violence is a public health crisis and calling on the nation to address it with the same vigor used to reduce deaths and injuries from tobacco and motor vehicle crashes.

Far right crackpot, Dan Bishop, a North Carolina member of the House Freedom Caucus and a candidate for Atorney General of his state was sputtering and called it “an end run around the Constitution.” Predictably, the gun manufacturers’ lobbying group was very negative about the announcement:

Sabrina Malhi and Lizette Ortega reported that “The surgeon general’s advisory marked the first time the nation’s leading voice on public health— the same office that in the 1960s highlighted the lethal consequences of cigarette smoking— had issued an urgent pronouncement on deaths related to firearms. The 39-page advisory underscores the significant physical and mental toll of gun violence on communities nationwide. Overall, deaths caused by guns rose to a three-decade high in 2021, driven by increases in homicides and suicides, the advisory says. In 2022, more than half of all gun deaths were from suicide, while 40 percent of firearms deaths were homicides.”

Murthy, who has long sounded the alarm about the danger of firearms, said the impetus for Tuesday’s advisory stems from the increase in gun violence, especially mass shootings since 2020, which he said exact a profound toll on the nation’s well-being.

“I want people to understand the full impact of firearm violence in our country, and I want them to see it as a public health issue,” Murthy said in an interview. “I know it’s been polarizing, and I know it’s been politicized, but if we can see it as a public health issue, we can come together and implement a public health solution.”

As of 2020, firearm-related injuries had become the leading cause of death for children and adolescents ages 1 to 19 in the United States. Gun-related deaths for youths exceed those from vehicular accidents, cancer and heart disease.

“This isn’t just a law and order policing problem. We need a more public health approach to reducing and preventing gun violence,” said Alexander McCourt, who researches gun laws at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.

Gun violence deaths are a uniquely American phenomenon— and an issue that medical groups and public health advocates have sought to address, often with limited success. In 2015, data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization showed that the United States had a firearm-related death rate 11.4 times higher than 28 other high-income nations. The disparity is even greater for the young: U.S. children up to age 14 accounted for 90 percent of all firearm-related injuries in that age group across the 29 countries in the study.

“We’re clearly the outlier and not in a good way,” Murthy said. “There are parents who are worried about dropping their kids off at school because of school shootings.”

The report argues for measures that put more space between firearms and people at risk of hurting themselves or those around them, including laws meant to prevent children from accessing guns, mandatory universal background checks for firearm transactions— including those given as gifts— and a ban on civilian use of assault weapons.

“We did a study a couple of years ago showing that states that had banned large capacity magazines had fewer mass shootings,” said David Hemenway, professor of health policy at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, which conducts firearms research. “And when they had the mass shootings, fewer people were killed.”

Despite the number of gun-related deaths in the United States, legislative efforts often impede implementation of stricter gun restrictions, the surgeon general’s advisory says, perpetuating loose regulations that contribute to the prevalence of mass shootings. Some research shows mass shootings are more likely to happen in states with looser gun laws, according to an analysis by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

“Even though we see a lot of effort at the state level, it doesn’t always translate because some states have strict laws bordering states with more relaxed laws so the laws may get diluted and aren’t as effective,” McCourt said.

Despite growing public sentiment favoring stronger firearm laws, gun groups, including the National Rifle Association, have long opposed stricter gun measures. In 2021, the NRA launched a $2 million campaign opposing President Biden’s efforts to bolster gun-control measures. The surgeon general’s advisory also met with criticism from the NRA.

“This is an extension of the Biden Administration’s war on law-abiding gun owners. America has a crime problem caused by criminals,” Randy Kozuch, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, said in a statement. “The reluctance to prosecute and punish criminals on the part of President Biden and many of his allies is the primary cause of that. That’s a simple fact.”

The advisory on firearm violence arrives a week after the surgeon general issued a pronouncement on another major issue: social media. Murthy urged that warning labels akin to those on packs of cigarettes be applied to social media.

Tuesday’s report on gun violence also highlights the effect of mass shooting deaths, which account for about 1 percent of all gun-related deaths, but the frequency of mass shooting incidents is increasing. Mass homicide events, which the advisory defines as four or more victims in addition to the perpetrator, affect a higher proportion of women, White people and children compared with other homicides.

The surgeon general’s advisory says high-schoolers exposed to school shootings are 20 percent more likely to steer clear of school because of safety concerns compared with peers not exposed to shootings.

“I remember meeting with a group of high school students telling me that when they go for walks in their neighborhood, they hear gunshots all the time, and it makes them worry about walking in their own neighborhoods,” Murthy said.

Health insurance claims from 2007 to 2021 revealed that youths from birth to 19 who were injured by a gun experienced a 117 percent increase in pain disorders and a 68 percent increase in psychiatric disorders compared with youths not injured by gun violence.

The scourge of gun violence is not shared equally. The report cites a nationwide study conducted in 2019 at Northwestern University, which found that firearm homicides and poverty are intertwined, with rates of gun deaths 27 percent higher among residents living in poverty.

Murthy said he worries that the public does not appreciate the psychological trauma inflicted by pervasive gun violence.

There are “people who witness these events, or family members who suffer the loss of a loved one,” Murthy said. “All of them experience negative mental health outcomes.”

Black people in America face the highest risk of gun-related deaths at a rate of 27 per 100,000 compared with 6.2 for all other racial and ethnic groups combined. White people ages 45 and older have the highest rates of gun suicide at 14.8 per 100,000, while for those under age 45, American Indians or Alaska Natives have the highest rates of gun suicide at 12.3 per 100,000. Veterans also have significantly increased rates of suicide by gun.

The report calls for a public health approach to reducing firearm violence. The advisory advocates for increased funding of gun violence research to inform prevention strategies, which include community violence interventions. These interventions involve “credible messengers and practitioners” who prevent violent conflict by disseminating resources within communities, including health-care and employment services, according to the surgeon general’s advisory.

“If you think about health care being a touchpoint for many families … in the name of health and keeping folks safe, I think [doctors] have a major responsibility” for gun violence prevention, said Chethan Sathya, a pediatric trauma surgeon and director of Northwell Health’s Center for Gun Violence Prevention.

The advisory similarly advocates for increasing access to mental health services that help people cope with the trauma inflicted by firearm violence.

“We’ve taken on difficult public health challenges that were complicated … and by taking a thoughtful scientific public health approach, we were able to make real progress,” Murthy said.

Connor O'Callaghan, running for an Arizona congressional seat held by NRA-MAGA extremist David Schweikert, has a good starting point to solve the problem. This morning he told us that “The Surgeon General was absolutely correct to declare gun violence in this country a public health crisis; the number of intentional, accidental, and self-inflicted deaths from guns in America is astounding. Perhaps no single measure would have a greater impact on this crisis than the repeal of PLCAA. We held Big Tobacco responsible, we hold auto manufacturers responsible for the safety of their products, and bar and liquor store owners are subject to ‘dram shop’ laws. Why should gun manufacturers and sellers have federal immunity and not be forced to constantly improve the safety of their products like everyone else?”

Diane Young is taking on MAGA Republican John James in suburbs north of Detroit. Her vision about handling gun safety is far more aligned with the residents of Macomb and Oakland counties This morning she told us that “A horrific mass shooting occurred at a splash pad on a hot summer day last week in our district— and nine people were shot, including several children. Rep. John James chose to crassly turn this tragic event into a photo op, rushing from a Trump rally in Detroit sponsored by a white Christian nationalist organization, just so he could pose for the news cameras next to the sheriff and offer ‘thoughts and prayers’ yet again. Frankly, in the context of James’ record, it was disgusting to watch. He has taken over $500,000 in money from pro-gun groups. He advocates for more guns in schools and opposes common sense background checks. He refuses to offer any real solutions on gun violence. It is clear he is out of touch with the residents of this district. And he was notably silent in the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision overturning the ban on bump stocks, gun accessories that effectively transform semi-automatic weapons in fully automatic machine guns.”

If this is an issue that's meaningful for you, please consider contributing to Weic Wilson's Diane Young's and Conor O'Callaghan's campaigns at the Flip Congress page here. and see if you can get some of your friends to chip in too.