Surgeon General Vivek Murthy was always anti-gun. Some tried to assure us that his views of guns as a public health crisis had changed, but we now know for a fact that was a lie. This was where he wanted to go all along.

He just had to take his time to do it.

Now he has, and he made a lot of headlines last month when he announced his office was taking that approach formally. We slapped him around plenty over that particular flavor of stupidity. However, he didn’t really get the message.

So the NRA is taking a swing.

Those predictions could not have been more fully realized than with the release of Murthy’s “U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory” entitled, “Firearm Violence: A Public Health Crisis in America.” Far from a work of science, it is simply a political tract that advocates for some of the same tired, unproven gun-control laws that firearm prohibitionists have been seeking since before Murthy even went to medical school. These include such non-medical interventions as criminal penalties for non-violent conduct, like simply owning America’s most-popular semi-automatic rifles.

Notably, the advisory has nothing to do with treating gunshot wounds, dealing with potential lead exposure from handling firearms or ammunition, preventing or treating hearing loss from exposure to muzzle reports, or any other medical issue pertaining to guns. Instead, it is a simply a taxpayer-funded tract that promotes the same tired slate of oppressive gun-control laws that Murthy’s fellow firearm prohibitionists have wanted for decades. It also seeks to provide cover for the disastrous crime-control failures of Murthy’s Democrat party by insisting that firearm assaults and homicides are akin to a disease or contagion rather than crimes committed by predators (most with lengthy records) who too often act with impunity.

It also puts a lie to Murthy’s own assertion, from his first confirmation hearing, that “I do not intend to use the surgeon general’s office as a bully pulpit for gun control.” While it took his second appointment under the Biden-Harris administration for Murthy to go all-in on gun control as surgeon general, that was obviously the plan all along.

Of course, Murthy defends this as being driven by the data, but we know that’s nonsense.

For example, we have the claim that guns are the leading cause of death for children, citing the source that includes legal adults aged 18 and 19 as “children.” 

Anyone with more than two brain cells can see the problem with that “data.” The only people who see that and are “driven” to do something are political hacks who just wanted something to confirm their biases.

There’s nothing data-driven about any of this. On other matters, RAND–which is a left-leaning think tank–has found that there’s not any evidence that gun control laws impact much of anything. There are a couple of areas where they suggest studies say otherwise, but even their highest level of support sure sounds pretty weak overall.

And none of it has anything to do with the nonsense Murthy is trying to push.

He’s not being driven by any data. He’s being driven by his own partisanship and the opportunity to do exactly what he said he would not do with his office, which is to use it to push an anti-gun agenda.