Nearly 50,000 Americans die every year from gunshots, while nearly 60% are self-inflicted. About 23,434 Americans who die from gun violence, nearly six-in-ten are black. Oddly enough, most black gun deaths are by other black people (89%), while 79% of white gun homicides are perpetrated by other white people.
A fundamental question is whether gun violence is a public health problem, or a crime problem? The New York Times seems to equate protecting gun rights with promoting crime, saying:
The Trump administration has gutted federal gun violence prevention efforts since returning to office, slashing funding for programs and research and even suppressing taxpayer-funded reports aimed at reducing gun injuries and deaths.
The cutbacks… represent a shift in philosophy about how to address gun violence, away from a public-health-oriented approach focused on prevention, to a law-and-order approach focused on beefing up police departments and seizing illegal weapons while also systematically rolling back firearms regulations.
Some work by public health advocacies has seemingly paid off. Interviewed by the New York Times, Fatima Loren Dreier:
…cited recent research showing that the programs, based in trauma centers, can successfully prevent victims of violent injuries, including gunshot wounds, from being injured again.
The programs focus on “retaliatory violence,” she said, which is concentrated in cities with high crime rates. Grounded in the idea that simply stitching up a patient’s wounds will not prevent future violence, they employ doctors, social service workers and “trusted messengers” to follow and counsel patients at risk of being injured again.
“For some cities, there have been historic declines — cities like Baltimore, Chicago,” she said, adding, “It’s pretty remarkable, the impact of these investments.”
By contrast, the Trump Administration treats gun violence like a crime problem and tries to remove access to guns from criminals, not everybody else:
After The New York Times inquired about Mr. Trump’s policies, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives issued a news release saying its “shift in priorities” has resulted in nearly 50,000 firearms “seized from criminals” since January 2025.
Public health advocates are quick to point out that 60% of gun deaths are suicides. Beefing up policing is unlikely to slow those deaths. Advocates believe we all should give up our freedom because: 1) some will misuse firearms in gun crimes; 2) some misuse firearms to end their own lives. The strategy by public health advocates to seize the gun control issue began decades ago:
Over the past four decades, public health experts have coalesced around the idea that gun violence, like infectious disease, can be tracked, studied and prevented. But federally funded gun violence prevention ran into trouble on Capitol Hill in 1996, when Republicans in Congress effectively put an end to C.D.C.-funded research.
Public health arguments are a backdoor approach to curtailing gun rights and another way to boost public funding to public health advocacies. NYT reports that the Trump Administration’s efforts to protect gun rights:
…are perplexing to people involved in prevention work because Mr. Trump is no stranger to gun violence. He has survived three assassination attempts…
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose father and uncle were assassinated, has said he does not view gun violence as a public health problem. “I would say it’s an epidemic,” Mr. Kennedy said at a House hearing in April. “I think it’s a law enforcement issue and not public health.”
Gun opponents, and those who want to believe gun violence is a public health issue, believe reducing gun ownership is the easiest way to reduce deaths from gun violence. Yet, the same is true of auto ownership. Reduce cars, reduce speeds and fewer people will die in auto accidents. However, in the process a lot of freedom would be lost. There is work to be done to prevent gun access by deranged people but there are already laws to curtail gun ownership by deranged people. They could be beefed up. If we all agree to give up freedom for safety, we will likely end up with less freedom and less safety.
Read more at New York Times: Trump Administration Guts Efforts to Prevent Gun Violence, Suppressing Reports