0:00

A heads up that this story is about

0:02

gun violence in all its forms. It may

0:04

not be appropriate for everyone, so please take

0:06

care. Gun violence is

0:08

a national public health crisis. That's

0:11

the message this week from U.S. Surgeon

0:13

General Vivek Morthy. It's the

0:16

first time the Surgeon General's office has

0:18

ever issued a public health advisory about

0:20

firearms. Morthy says his goal

0:23

is to reframe the conversation about

0:25

death by gunfire. I lay out

0:27

a series of strategies in this advisory that we can

0:29

take to address the scourge

0:31

of gun violence. That's Morthy speaking

0:33

on NPR's Here and Now earlier

0:36

this week. The scourge of

0:38

gun violence he's referring to has a number.

0:40

More than 48,000 Americans were killed by guns in 2021. That's

0:46

according to the CDC's most recent

0:48

annual data. Over half those

0:50

gun deaths were by suicide. And

0:52

what we ought to recognize is the toll that

0:55

it's taking on us. The highest price we're paying

0:57

are the lives lost, nearly $50,000 a

0:59

year. But for every one person who

1:01

loses their life, the gun violence,

1:03

there are two who are injured and

1:05

who survive but with mental and physical

1:07

consequences. Eric Brown is a

1:09

survivor. He and a friend were both

1:12

shot outside their car in Chicago a

1:14

couple years ago waiting for a takeout

1:16

order at a vegan restaurant. They

1:18

each recovered from their physical injuries

1:20

but not long after the shooting,

1:23

Brown told me about the mental

1:25

toll of that experience. And I

1:27

like to remember during that time it's just like, saying

1:30

in my head like when is this gonna be over? When

1:32

is this gonna be over? Like just praying that it's gonna

1:34

be over and that I don't get

1:37

hit nowhere that it will just like permanently

1:40

make me disable or like even kill

1:42

me. That summer Brown had

1:44

relocated to Chicago for a summer internship

1:47

but it's actually the city where he

1:49

grew up. That fear of

1:51

gun violence was inescapable when he was young.

1:53

When I was growing up I was like I hope

1:55

I never get shot. That's something that I never want

1:57

to experience so I made sure that I avoid every

1:59

way possible. to not get shot. Brown chose

2:02

to go out of state to college, to

2:04

the University of Wisconsin. He

2:06

says he made that decision in part to

2:08

escape the gun violence in his hometown. I

2:11

don't have to like lean towards the streets

2:13

and be involved in nonsense that I don't

2:15

see myself being a part of. I never

2:17

thought I was going to be a victim

2:19

of gun violence. Even

2:21

with everything he did, Brown

2:23

could not avoid becoming a victim of

2:26

gun violence. And that is

2:28

an increasing reality here in the U.S.

2:31

Consider this. Guns are

2:33

killing Americans at a higher rate each

2:35

year. Will calling me issue

2:37

a public health crisis make a difference? From

2:45

NPR, I'm Wana Summers. Support

2:48

for NPR and the following message come

2:50

from Betterment, an automated investing and savings

2:52

app. CEO Sarah Levy shares why Betterment

2:54

believes cash can be a strategic choice.

2:57

There are times when the market is

2:59

volatile when customers are a little nervous

3:01

about investing. We came to understand that

3:03

there was an opportunity to introduce cash

3:06

as part of an investing strategy and

3:08

to give back yields to the customer.

3:10

Learn more about high-yield cash

3:12

accounts at betterment.com. Investing involves

3:14

risk, performance not guaranteed, cash

3:17

reserve offered through Betterment LLC

3:19

and Betterment Securities. Betterment is not a

3:21

bank. This message comes

3:23

from NPR sponsor, American Home Shield.

3:25

Every day is a great day

3:28

when you're not worrying about your

3:30

appliances and home systems. An American

3:32

Home Shield warranty helps protect your

3:34

home and wallet from unexpected breakdowns

3:36

like leaky faucets or faulty water

3:38

heaters or wonky thermostats. Now that's

3:40

something to celebrate. For 20%

3:42

off plans, go to

3:44

ahs.com/consider. For coverage details,

3:46

including limit amounts, fees,

3:49

limitations and exclusions, go

3:51

to ahs.com/contracts. This

3:54

episode is brought to you by Syngrani

3:56

Bank. There's talking about saving and there's

3:58

doing it. Syngrani Bank. It's the

5:10

question as

6:00

you point out, it did reframe the

6:02

national conversation about smoking, but smoking

6:04

cigarettes is not a constitutionally protected right in

6:07

the same way that the right to bear

6:09

arms is. So I wonder just how useful

6:11

that comparison is, in fact. Well,

6:13

I think when I approach this from the

6:15

bedside, if we're talking about cigarettes,

6:17

we have, as physicians, have a responsibility to

6:19

our patients to advise them as the what's

6:22

the best thing for them to tell them

6:24

to stop smoking. And we also

6:26

have that same responsibility when it comes to talking to

6:28

our patients about firearms as well,

6:30

whether they're here seeing me in the

6:32

emergency department for a mental health crisis,

6:35

or for some other reason, maybe they

6:37

have children visiting, making sure that their

6:39

firearms are safely stored, locked, and

6:42

hopefully separate from ammunition. And

6:44

it's not something that I would shy away from

6:46

doing. It's my duty as a

6:48

physician to approach the patient every time that I

6:51

see something that might be harmful to their health.

6:53

And so we should be doing the same

6:56

thing, physicians as well as the public health

6:58

community, in talking to each other

7:00

about firearms. The Surgeon

7:02

General has chosen to call attention this

7:04

week to gun violence specifically, but as

7:07

a physician, where does that fall among other

7:09

sorts of public health crises that we're seeing?

7:12

I think the one thing that's really important to note

7:14

is a study came out a couple years ago

7:17

and looking at children and teenagers, and

7:19

specifically the number one cause of death for

7:21

them for the longest time, and it had

7:23

been motor vehicles. And in

7:25

the most recent years that has actually been

7:27

eclipsed by firearm violence. And that's

7:30

one firearm violence increasing, but also because

7:32

we've actually taken efforts to stop what

7:34

was the number one cause, which

7:37

was motor vehicle collisions. We've

7:39

done things like car seats, made

7:42

sure that children are not sitting

7:44

in the front seat of the

7:46

car. And other techniques through changing

7:48

the manufacturing of cars have made

7:50

cars safer. We can do

7:52

the same sorts of things to

7:54

firearms. And no one has

7:56

gotten rid of cars. There's probably more than

7:58

ever out there. But we've

8:01

not done that same sort of pattern

8:04

for firearms. Let's

8:06

shift the conversation now to some

8:08

of the policies that the Surgeon

8:11

General recommends, policies around guns themselves,

8:13

things like requiring safe storage, universal

8:15

background checks, and a ban on

8:17

assault weapons. What do you make of those types of

8:19

recommendations? So when I approach this report

8:21

and I specifically look at the policy portions of

8:24

it, I like to think about it the same

8:26

way public health professionals think about any other disease

8:28

process. And that's primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. So

8:30

when it comes to primary prevention, we can talk

8:33

about things like background checks, which essentially are trying

8:35

to make sure that guns don't wind up in

8:37

the hands of people that aren't supposed to have

8:39

them in the first place. We know that if

8:42

we fix that, that lives will be saved. From

8:44

a secondary prevention process, we're talking about things like

8:46

once a gun is in a home, how can

8:48

we make that gun safer? And

8:50

so tragedy doesn't strike. And that's where safe

8:52

storage comes into play. So if you

8:55

do have a firearm at home, like I do, you

8:57

can go ahead and lock it

8:59

up, put on a trigger lock. You

9:01

can put it in safe. And then third,

9:03

we have tertiary prevention, things like violence intervention

9:06

programs. So if someone, once someone's already been

9:08

shot, how do you prevent that from happening

9:10

again? I wanna ask you a

9:12

personal question because you are an emergency

9:14

physician, but you are also a gun

9:16

owner. So I'm hoping that you can

9:18

talk a little bit about your decision

9:20

to own a gun, but you are

9:22

also advocating for some of these measures

9:24

to prevent gun violence. And those are

9:26

two things that some people may see

9:29

as in conflict with one another. Yeah,

9:31

I don't see it as something that's in conflict.

9:33

I live in Texas. Texas has

9:35

a very strong gun culture here. My

9:38

house is broken into. When I first moved down here,

9:40

my wife went to the store the next day, bought

9:42

a couple guns and brought them home. Until then, I

9:44

had never actually owned a firearm myself. But

9:46

what we did was be responsible about it. We

9:49

decided to go ahead and take courses so that

9:51

we actually know how to use them. And

9:53

then once we have a child, to

9:55

actually put those firearms away so that

9:58

our child doesn't have access. to him.

10:01

And I know a lot of people listening might

10:03

have different opinions on that. It's not my job as

10:05

a physician to tell you what to think

10:07

or how to run your house, but it is my job to

10:10

tell you about risk. And I

10:12

think this is why it's really important the Surgeon

10:14

General is making the statement so that people understand

10:16

the true risks of having a firearm and they

10:18

can decide what they want to do on their

10:20

own. I know that you

10:23

are not a politician, you are not an elected

10:25

official, but I want to know from you, do

10:27

you believe that a report like the one that

10:29

the Surgeon General has just issued? Has any hope

10:32

of changing the political conversation about guns in a

10:34

way that the mass shootings that we have seen

10:36

in this country like in Sandy Hook, like in

10:38

Yuvaldi, like in so many communities across this country

10:40

have not been able to? I hope

10:43

that it can. I think that when you talk

10:45

about mass shooting zone, we talk about things like

10:47

assault weapons, which are mentioned in the

10:49

report as well. There's something where

10:51

I think certain people can disagree

10:54

on. What I'm hoping though is that

10:56

the Surgeon General's report allows us to

10:58

have these conversations and take the politics

11:00

out of it so that we can

11:03

approach things from a more evidenced informed

11:05

manner and figure out what works and

11:07

put forth laws to save the most

11:09

lives that we can. That

11:12

was Dr. Cedric Dark. He's an emergency

11:14

physician at Baylor College of Medicine in

11:16

Houston and author of an upcoming book

11:18

called Under the Gun. Dr. Dark, thank

11:20

you. Thank you. This

11:23

episode was produced by Catherine Fink,

11:25

Mark Rivers, and Janaki Mehta. It

11:28

was edited by Jeanette Woods and

11:30

Christopher Intagliata. Our executive producer is

11:32

Sami Yanigan. If

11:34

you or someone you know may be

11:36

considering suicide or is in crisis, call

11:39

or text 988 to reach the Suicide

11:42

in Crisis Lifeline. And

11:45

one more thing before we go. You

11:47

can now enjoy the Consider This newsletter. We

11:49

still help you break down a major story

11:52

of the day, but you'll also get to

11:54

know our producers and hosts and some moments

11:56

of joy from the All Things Considered team.

12:00

Sign up at npr.org

12:02

slash consider this newsletter. It's

12:09

consider this from NPR. I'm

12:11

Juana Summers. This

12:15

message comes from NPR sponsor,

12:17

Viori. A new perspective on

12:19

performance apparel. Clothing designed with

12:21

premium fabrics, built to move

12:23

in, styled for life. For

12:25

20% off your first purchase,

12:27

go to viori.com/ NPR. Support for

12:30

Npr and the following message come

12:32

from our sponsor Whole Foods Market.

12:34

Whos that? celebratory brunch for a

12:36

less with three Sixty Five by

12:38

Whole Foods Market featuring while it

12:40

happy fines like hold smoked Atlantic

12:42

salmon and. More.