It seems like déjà vu.
As we saw last week in the defeat of Debo P. Adegbile, the nominee for the head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, President Obama’s choice for a top-level position in the government is once again facing challenges from Congress.
Dr. Vivek Murthy has been selected as the nominee to be the next surgeon general of the United States. His qualifications are numerous. He received an undergraduate degree from Harvard University and a MBA and MD from Yale. He is a practicing physician at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a professor at Harvard Medical School, founder of Doctors for America, and co-founder of TrialNetworks and the HIV/AIDS nonprofit, VISIONS.
So what’s the problem?
Well, according to the National Rifle Association (NRA) and other gun rights groups, Murthy holds dangerously radical positions in regards to guns, including the incredible notion that, “Guns are a health care issue.”
If this position sounds familiar, it’s because it is. In fact, C. Everett Koop, former surgeon general under President Reagan, wrote in an article in The Journal of the American Medical Association that gun violence was a “public health emergency” that must be addressed immediately.
Yet, the NRA continues to act as if they are the voice of reason, writing in a letter to the Senate: “The public must trust that the Surgeon General’s actions are based on empirical and scientific evidence, rather than political or ideological motives.”
Besides the obvious hypocrisy on display here, the empirical evidence only reinforces Murthy’s positions.
The fact is that every 70 minutes an American under the age of 25 dies from gun violence. Every year, gun violence takes the lives of more than 30,000 Americans, almost equaling the number of lives lost in automobile accidents. In addition to the staggering number of fatalities, guns are also the cause of more than 75,000 non-fatal injuries and disabilities.
Doctors are the people who see the impact of gun violence in its most graphic form. Emergency room physicians are the ones who have to try to save the lives of the children brought in as they are hemorrhaging to death from the gun wounds in their bodies.
From his experience, Murthy has concluded that common sense approaches to reduce the gun violence in this country should be taken, including universal background checks, ammunition limits, and a semi-automatic weapons ban—all policy proposals that the majority of Americans support. He also wants to remove restrictions that prohibit the Centers for Disease Control from researching and collecting data about gun violence. These proposals hardly make him to be the radical the NRA hopes to portray him as.
The long list of Murthy’s supporters is growing. It includes groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Hospital Association, National Center for Disaster Preparedness, and the Health & Disability Advocates. Unfortunately, it’s the NRA — hardly the country’s expert on health — who is being heard the most in Washington D.C. In this case, it seems that money and fear mongering are winning out over scientific facts and expertise.
A vote for Dr. Vivek Murthy is a vote for a safer and healthier America. Murthy is right when he tweeted that politicians are “putting lives at risk b/c they’re scared of NRA.” In addition to the Republican’s opposition, at least ten Democrats are considering voting against his confirmation. It seems that any conversation about gun violence is instantly silenced by the NRA screaming ,“The Second Amendment!,” at the top of their lungs, as they slip more money into politicians’ pockets.
The NRA has no place in our doctors’ offices or our emergency rooms. It’s time for our elected officials to do what’s best for the American public and refuse to be bought out by the gun lobbyists. As Frank Underwood on House of Cards asks, “Where’s your courage?”
Christine Dickason is a junior public policy leadership from Collierville, Tenn.
