Chambana Sun

Congresswoman Mary Miller has raised concerns regarding the U.S. Surgeon General's declaration of gun violence as a public health emergency. "I will work to strip power from Biden's corrupt HHS and to cut all funding for the unelected DC bureaucrats who think they can violate your Constitutional rights!" she stated in a June 25 Facebook post.

"Joe Biden just announced he will use "public health emergency powers" to violate your Second Amendment rights," said Miller, U.S. Representative IL-15, according to Facebook. "I will work to strip power from Biden's corrupt HHS and to cut all funding for the unelected DC bureaucrats who think they can violate your Constitutional rights!"

In her post, Miller shared a screenshot of a CNN article with the headline: "US surgeon general declares US gun violence an urgent public health crisis." According to the article, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy declared gun violence a new public health emergency.

Screenshot of Congresswoman Mary Miller's June 25 Facebook post | Congresswoman Mary Miller's Facebook page

"Over the last decade or two, this problem has been worsening and we have now reached the point where gun violence is the leading cause of death among kids and teens – the leading cause of death. That is something that we should never take as the new normal. There’s nothing normal about that," said Murthy in an interview with CNN’s John Berman.

The advisory notes that "in 2022, 48,204 total people died from firearm-related injuries, including suicides, homicides, and unintentional deaths. This is over 8,000 more lives lost than in 2019, and over 16,000 more lives lost than in 2010." Further, it states that firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teenagers in the U.S., based on data from 2002 to 2022 for youths aged 1 through 19 years. In 2022 alone, there were 4,603 youth deaths attributed to firearms.

The advisory calls for treating gun violence with a public health approach. According to Dr. Emmy Betz, who spoke with PBS’ Anna Nawaz, this approach involves a multi-step cycle. Betz is an emergency room doctor and director of the Firearm Injury Prevention Initiative. The first step is to examine data to understand who is being killed and why – then using strategies proven to prevent injuries and deaths on a larger scale.

Mary Miller currently serves in the U.S. Congress representing Illinois’ 15th district after replacing former member John Shimkus in 2021. She graduated from Eastern Illinois University with a BA and was born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1959. Miller resides in Oakland with her husband; they run their fourth-generation family farm together and have seven children and twenty grandchildren.