Webpage listing statistics and information on shootings taken down as Trump seeks to protect second amendment<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Trump administration<\/a> has removed former surgeon general Vivek Murthy\u2019s advisory on gun violence as a public health issue from the US Department of Health and Human Services\u2019 website. This move was made to comply with Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s executive order<\/a> to protect second amendment rights, a White House official told the Guardian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The <\/strong>\u201cfirearm violence in America\u201d<\/a> page, where the advisory had been posted, was filled with data and information about the ripple effects of shootings, the prevalence of firearm suicides and the number of American children and adolescents who have been shot and killed. Now, when someone reaches the site they will be met with a \u201cpage not found\u201d message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When it was originally released last summer<\/a>, Murthy\u2019s advisory was met with praise from violence prevention and research groups, and was lambasted by second amendment law centers and advocacy groups that argued the Biden administration was using public health as a cloak to push forward more gun control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is an extension of the Biden Administration\u2019s war on law-abiding gun owners. America has a crime problem caused by criminals,\u201d the National Rifle Association (NRA) said in a statement posted to X on 25 July 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Daniel Semenza, a firearm violence researcher with Rutgers University, argues that talking about gun violence through a public health lens is meant to \u201cbring the heat down\u201d about a deeply politicized issue and broaden what prevention can look like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2023, nearly 47,000<\/a> people died by firearms, most of them suicides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen people read gun violence is a public health problem, they read guns <\/em>are a public health problem,\u201d Semenza said. \u201cThis idea actually removes the politics from the issue and is an engine to get us on the same page. [The removal] feels like an unnecessary and mean-spirited way to politicize something that people have actively been trying to bring people together on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The removal of Murthy\u2019s advisory and the rest of the information on the page is one of the thousands of pieces<\/a> of health information and research removed from federal websites. They include information about vaccines, health risks among youth and gender-based violence, the New York Times reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of these pages have been restored following a court order<\/a>, and it is unclear whether the removal of the \u201cfirearm violence in America\u201d will see the same fate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In response to the Guardian\u2019s question about the removal of webpages, the White House said: \u201cIllegal violence of any sort is a crime issue, and as he again made clear during his recent speech at the Department of Justice, President Trump is committed to Making America Safe Again by empowering law enforcement to uphold law and order.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n