Statement by Ray Hart, Executive Director Council of the Great City Schools

On U.S. Surgeon General’s Landmark Advisory on Firearm Violence

WASHINGTON -- The Council of the Great City Schools strongly supports U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murphy’s landmark advisory declaring firearm violence in America to be a public health crisis with devastating and far-reaching consequences for the nation's health and well-being.

Gun violence has plagued nearly every major urban community in the United States over the last decade, as well as many non-urban communities, and has taken the lives of too many promising young people.

The Council applauds the U.S. Surgeon General for calling the American people’s attention to this urgent public issue and commends his courage and determination to end the gun violence that is plaguing the nation.

Our public schools, particularly in the nation’s Great Cities, remain one of the safest places for our children to be, but the toll that gun violence takes on our students is devastating.

With firearm-related injuries as the most common cause of injury-related death for children and youth ages 1 to 24 in the United States, the Council and its member school districts cannot reduce gun violence in the nation’s urban schools and communities alone. This is why last year the Council teamed up with the International Association of Chiefs of Police to jointly release a report that provides schools and police new and innovative approaches to reducing crime and violence in their communities.

The price that our young people, particularly our males of color, are paying in our cities for the inaction of adults in reducing firearm deaths is unbearable. And the nation itself is paying a high cost as so many promising young lives are lost to gun violence.

We commend U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murphy, the Biden Harris Administration, and U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona for this