Gun violence as a public health issue

With last month's controversy over Vivek Murthy's nomination for surgeon general still fresh, the nation's second-largest physicians group reaffirmed Thursday that it considers firearm violence a public health issue and issued a wide-ranging set of recommendations to address the deaths and injuries caused by guns.

The timing appears to be coincidental. But like Murthy — whose nomination was blocked in large part by a National Rifle Association offensive over his views on guns — the American College of Physicians believes doctors must take action against the 32,000 deaths and 74,000 injures caused by guns in the United States each year.