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Calling gun violence a public health crisis is a ‘first step’ to fight it 

Three public health experts weigh in on a new U.S. effort to treat this as a health problem

Yellow police tap wraps around a black pole. To the left are children's bikes with a green helmet abandoned on the brick sidewalk. The scene comes a day after someone used a gun to kill and injure people at a parade.

Two years ago, a gunman in Illinois fired a rifle into a crowd celebrating the Fourth of July, killing several people. The incident is part of the larger problem of gun violence in America, which has now been declared a public health crisis.

Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP

By Meghan Rosen

For the first time in history, a United States surgeon general has formally declared gun violence a public health crisis.