Surgeon general calls guns a public health threat in new advisory

ddressing America's gun violence crisis requires a public health approach, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy will declare in an advisory Tuesday.

Why it matters: The surgeon general's advisory, one of the most significant tools his office has to draw the public's attention to a health issue, comes days before the first presidential debate and follows a spate of mass shootings in the first weekend of summer.

"For too long, this issue has been mired in polarization and politics, but our goal, my goal, is to take this issue out of the realm of politics and put it into the realm of public health, which is where it belongs," Murthy told Axios.