{"id":2283324,"date":"2024-06-25T14:28:02","date_gmt":"2024-06-25T18:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/s-g-murthys-health-emergency-on-guns-is-scaremongering\/"},"modified":"2024-06-25T14:33:28","modified_gmt":"2024-06-25T18:33:28","slug":"s-g-murthys-health-emergency-on-guns-is-scaremongering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/s-g-murthys-health-emergency-on-guns-is-scaremongering\/","title":{"rendered":"S.G. Murthy&#8217;s &#8216;Health Emergency&#8217; On Guns Is Scaremongering"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fs-g-murthys-health-emergency-on-guns-is-scaremongering%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2283324&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>U.S.\u200b Surgeon General Vivek \u200dMurthy \u200dhas been involved\u2063 in political and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/becerra-wont-apologize-for-suggesting-covid-19-survivors-who-didnt-get-vaccine-are-like-flat-earthers\/\" title=\"Becerra Won\u2019t Apologize For Suggesting COVID-19 Survivors Who Didn\u2019t Get Vaccine Are Like \u2018Flat-Earthers\u2019\">public health debates<\/a>, including his\u200b previous efforts to tackle \u200cmisinformation during the \u2064Covid pandemic as part of the Biden administration&#8217;s policies.\u200b Recently, Murthy has \u2064shifted \u2064focus to gun violence, which he labels a &#8220;public health crisis.&#8221; He aims to reframe gun ownership discussions away from politics, positioning them purely within public health\u2064 discourse, although critics argue this \u200dviolates\u200b constitutional rights related to firearm ownership.<\/p>\n<p>Murthy&#8217;s\u200b approach conflates\u2063 suicides\u2064 and homicides\u2063 under\u2064 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-actor-ilan-srulovicz-battles-against-intolerant-hollywood\/\" title=\"How Actor Ilan Srulovicz Battles Against Intolerant Hollywood\">gun-related issues<\/a> and includes defensive gun uses as national\u200c health problems. This broad categorization is\u200d contentious, with critiques highlighting misleading statistics, such as considering 18- and \u200c19-year-olds,\u2064 and\u2062 sometimes up\u200d to 25-year-olds, as children, inflating firearm mortality rates among youths. Official \u200cdata, however, suggests other causes\u200b such as vehicular accidents are more prevalent\u200d killers \u2062of children across some age groups.<\/p>\n<p>Murthy&#8217;s reports and statements, including alarming statistics about gun \u200bviolence exposure and its psychological effects \u200don the populace, have sparked debate. Critics question the validity of the data and the\u200c interpretation, arguing that some polling results\u2064 used in\u2064 his arguments may include \u2063exaggerated or unrepresentative figures. This ongoing controversy \u2064underscores deep divisions \u2062in\u200b how gun violence and public health intersect and are addressed in\u200c policy and public opinion.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A few years back, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/corner\/its-not-governments-job-to-root-out-misinformation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">used<\/a> his position to assist the Biden administration\u2019s censorship efforts during the Covid pandemic, contending that the government had a responsibility to root out \u201cmisinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now, Murthy wants to do the same thing to the Second Amendment, declaring gun violence a \u201cpublic health crisis.\u201d The surgeon general <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kiro7.com\/news\/trending\/surgeon-general-declares-gun-violence-public-health-crisis\/ERAD4SI7BBD7HOPMTGYEBSOD44\/\">wants<\/a> to take gun ownership \u201cout of the realm of politics and put it into the realm of public health.\u201d Fortunately, the Constitution already has purview over the individual\u2019s right to own a firearm.<\/p>\n<p>But setting aside the fact that Murthy\u2019s goal is unconstitutional, the premise of his report is also highly misleading. For starters, like most anti-gun activists, Murthy dishonestly conflates suicides (a mental health issue) with homicides (a criminality issue) to make sweeping contentions about firearms. Murthy even throws in incidents where guns are used in <em>self-defense<\/em> as a \u201charm\u201d plaguing the nation\u2019s health.<\/p>\n<p>But that\u2019s just the beginning.<\/p>\n<blockquote data-conversation=\"none\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">What is especially devastating is how this has affected our kids. Firearm violence is now the leading cause of death among children and adolescents\u2014more than car accidents or drug overdoses. 3\/10<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dr. Vivek Murthy, U.S. Surgeon General (@Surgeon_General) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Surgeon_General\/status\/1805555389569589304?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 25, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Virtually every media outlet and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/florida-is-open-new-york-is-closed-and-ny-has-more-covid-deaths\/\" title=\"Florida Is Open, New York Is Closed, And NY Has More COVID Deaths\">left-wing politician<\/a> in the country repeats this fake statistic, which is also the foundation of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/surgeongeneral\/priorities\/firearm-violence\/index.html\">Murthy\u2019s report.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The problem is that every \u201cstudy\u201d used to bolster his claim counts 18- and 19-year-olds as adolescents \u2014 including criminals \u2014 and sometimes\u00a0up to <a href=\"https:\/\/publichealth.jhu.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/2022-05\/2020-gun-deaths-in-the-us-4-28-2022-b.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">25-year-olds<\/a>. Americans under 18 can\u2019t purchase guns legally. Once an 18- or 19-year-old gets his hands on a firearm illegally, he faces adult criminal charges. And when you take 18- and 19-year-old adults out of these studies, the number of gun-related deaths among kids plunges. According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/nchs\/fastats\/child-health.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CDC<\/a>, the leading killers of children between the ages of 1 and 14 are vehicular accidents, suffocation, and drowning. Twice as many kids under 12 <a href=\"https:\/\/nyc.streetsblog.org\/2022\/12\/28\/fact-check-many-more-children-die-from-road-violence-than-gun-violence\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">died<\/a> in cars than from guns.<\/p>\n<p>It is worth remembering that relatively few children die of natural causes. And if these studies began at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marchofdimes.org\/peristats\/data?reg=99&#038;top=6&#038;stop=112&#038;lev=1&#038;slev=1&#038;obj=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">birth<\/a>, rather than at one year old, genetic abnormalities and accidents would be the leading <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/nchs\/data\/vsrr\/vsrr033.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">killer<\/a> of children. Surely a one-year-old is as much a child as a 19-year-old who has illegally procured a firearm.<\/p>\n<blockquote data-conversation=\"none\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">A staggering 54% of adults report that they or a family member have experienced a firearm-related incident (been personally threatened with or injured by a firearm, lost a family member, witnessed a shooting, or shot a firearm in self-defense). 2\/10<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dr. Vivek Murthy, U.S. Surgeon General (@Surgeon_General) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Surgeon_General\/status\/1805555388302967093?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 25, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>This contention is ludicrous. And putting some self-reported polling data into slick graphs doesn\u2019t magically make it any more scientific.<\/p>\n<p>As of 2020, there were 258 million adults in the United States. So, unless these adults are talking about witnessing gun violence on television it\u2019s implausible that 139 million people have personally experienced gun violence or know close family members who have. Then again, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kff.org\/other\/poll-finding\/americans-experiences-with-gun-related-violence-injuries-and-deaths\/\">the Kaiser study<\/a> used by Murthy puts no limitations on family\u00a0\u2014 so they might as well be talking about a second cousin\u2019s wife\u2019s stepson.<\/p>\n<p>When I took a deeper dive into the Kaiser poll (of 1,271 people), I also noticed that 38 percent of those respondents contend that they have <em>personally<\/em> been involved in or witnessed an incident with a gun. That translates into tens of millions of Americans walking around right now who have witnessed a gun being drawn in anger or shooting one in self-defense. Seems <em>highly<\/em> unlikely.<\/p>\n<blockquote data-conversation=\"none\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Exposure to firearm violence can contribute to elevated stress levels and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/a-perfect-storm-father-blames-covid-19-isolation-for-12-year-old-sons-suicide\/\" title=\"\u2018A Perfect Storm\u2019: Father Blames COVID-19 Isolation For 12-Year-Old Son\u2019s Suicide\">mental health challenges<\/a> and threaten the sense of well-being for entire communities. Nearly 6 in 10 adults worry about a loved one being the victim of firearm violence. 4\/10<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dr. Vivek Murthy, U.S. Surgeon General (@Surgeon_General) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Surgeon_General\/status\/1805555390815314257?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 25, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Six in ten, huh? If someone asked me if I was worried about a loved one being the victim of firearm violence, I would also say yes. Shootings happen. And every instance of gun criminality is a tragedy. So I\u2019m surprised it\u2019s not 10 in 10. When it comes to loved ones, we tend to entertain worries about everything. Some rational, some not.<\/p>\n<p>But there\u2019s a huge difference between a pollster asking a person if he is worried about gun violence and asking him what he worries about most. Because a long-term <a href=\"https:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/544415\/personal-safety-fears-three-decade-high.aspx\">Gallup poll <\/a>finds that identity theft, car theft, burglary (when not at home), and hate crimes all appear as concerns related to personal safety fear before \u201cbeing murdered\u201d \u2014 which predates the invention of the firearm (though I\u2019m not sure if Murthy knows that).<\/p>\n<p>This is probably because the chances of a law-abiding person in the United States being shot are still rather small. The polls used by Murthy \u2014 which include one from leftist smear operation Southern Poverty Law Center, just to give you an idea \u2014 are all constructed to mislead Americans. Experts making a good-faith effort to solve problems \u2014 a mental health crisis or a crisis of criminality \u2014 aren\u2019t relying on bogus \u201cstudies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Murthy gives away the game when he ends his thread by contending that our \u201cfailure to address\u201d gun violence \u201cis a moral crisis.\u201d (I thought it was a health crisis?) Of course, the way he wants to address it, no doubt, aligns with the Democrats\u2019 long-standing policy goals of restricting Second Amendment rights. Which is the whole reason for this bogus PR campaign.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<div>\n<p>      David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist, a nationally syndicated columnist, a Happy Warrior columnist at National Review, and author of five books\u2014the most recent, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Eurotrash-America-Reject-Failed-Continent\/dp\/0063066017\/\">Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent<\/a>. Follow him on Twitter, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davidharsanyi\/\">@davidharsanyi<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few years ago, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy supported the Biden administration&#8217;s censorship during the Covid pandemic to combat &#8220;misinformation.&#8221; Now, Murthy labels gun violence a &#8220;public health crisis,&#8221; aiming to apply similar measures to the Second Amendment. He advocates for governmental intervention in these issues<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":831,"featured_media":2283325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Murthy.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[3896,4204,32661,32660,12889],"class_list":["post-2283324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-debate","tag-guns","tag-health-emergency","tag-s-g-murthy","tag-scaremongering"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Murthy.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2283324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/831"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2283324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2283324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2283325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2283324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2283324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2283324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}