By Lori Tremmel Freeman, NACCHO CEO
Washington, DC, June 25, 2024 – The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO)—on behalf of the over 3,300 local health departments across the country—applauds today’s announcement from the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, declaring gun violence as a public health crisis. Local public health leaders have seen this crisis bear out in community after community, working to prevent the violence, support those impacted, and rebuild after tragedy.
For over a decade, NACCHO policy has highlighted gun violence as a public health problem and amplified the perspective of our local health departments, many of which have declared gun violence a public health crisis in their own regions. NACCHO remains committed in upholding policies and approaches that prevent firearm misuse, injury, and death to promote safe communities. This includes federal efforts to research and address preventable gun violence, but also local programs and approaches that can help keep communities safe. Today’s announcement reinforces an urgent call to action to address this critical issue that continues to impact many communities across the country.
Gun violence-related injuries and deaths continue to climb at an alarming rate, and this public health crisis requires a strategic and coordinated response. To address this crisis, NACCHO has been and continues to be actively engaged with supporting federal legislation, regulation, and policies that prevent firearm-related injury and death. At the local community level, NACCHO has endorsed activities to prioritize establishing data collection partnerships to help identify the areas of highest need, strengthening community-wide collaboration to develop strategies to increase firearm safety, implementing early intervention initiatives to protect children, and increasing access to crisis services to prevent suicide and address mental health.
NACCHO also recognizes that gun violence has a disproportionate impact in communities that have been subjected to and continue to face structural racism, social marginalization, and economic inequalities. NACCHO recommends that all policies and initiatives should address the root causes of systematic and structural inequities that further exacerbate firearm-related injury and death.
NACCHO will continue to support efforts aimed at preventing gun violence and protecting communities so that everyone can have the opportunity to live a safe and healthy life.
For more information on our position and approach to addressing gun violence, view NACCHO’s official policy statement: Prevention of Firearm-Related Injury and Death.
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About NACCHO
The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) represents the over 3,300 local governmental health departments across the country. These city, county, metropolitan, district, and tribal departments work every day to protect and promote health and well-being for all people in their communities. For more information about NACCHO, please visit www.naccho.org.
