IV 
117TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 1165 
Declaring gun violence a public health crisis. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 9, 2022 
Mr. ESPAILLAT (for himself, Ms. ESCOBAR, Ms. DEAN, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Mr. 
VARGAS, Mr. CLEAVER, Mr. COOPER, Mr. TORRES of New York, Mr. 
LARSON of Connecticut, Mr. EVANS, Mr. SUOZZI, Mrs. WATSON COLE-
MAN, Mr. SWALWELL, Mr. GARAMENDI, and Ms. LEE of California) sub-
mitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
Energy and Commerce 
RESOLUTION 
Declaring gun violence a public health crisis. 
Whereas gun violence has become the leading cause of death 
for children and adolescents in the United States, accord-
ing to the latest mortality data by the Centers for Dis-
ease Control and Prevention; 
Whereas there have been at least 2,062 school incidents in 
the United States since 1970, causing 683 fatalities, and 
1,932 injuries, according to the Naval Postgraduate 
School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security; 
Whereas more than 311,000 students in the United States 
have experienced gun violence since the Columbine shoot-
ing in 1999; 
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Whereas, on April 16, 2007, 33 people were shot and killed 
at Virginia Polytechnic Institute in Blacksburg, Virginia; 
Whereas the United States has experienced hundreds of pub-
lic mass shootings in churches, schools, concerts, and 
movie theaters, including— 
(1) on August 5, 2012, 6 people were shot and killed 
at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin; 
(2) on December 14, 2012, 27 individuals, including 
20 children, were shot and killed at Sandy Hook Elemen-
tary School in Newtown, Connecticut; 
(3) on June 17, 2015, 9 Black Americans were shot 
and killed at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal 
Church in Charleston, South Carolina; 
(4) on December 2, 2015, 14 people were shot and 
killed at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, 
California; 
(5) on June 12, 2016, 49 individuals, 90 percent of 
whom were Hispanic, were shot and killed at Pulse night-
club in Orlando, Florida, in what is considered the dead-
liest attack on LGBTQ+ people in United States history; 
(6) on September 16, 2016, 12 people were shot and 
killed at the headquarters of the Naval Sea Systems 
Command inside Washington Navy Yard in southeast 
Washington, DC; 
(7) on October 1, 2017, 58 people were shot and 
killed and 546 others were injured in Las Vegas, Nevada, 
in what is known to be the deadliest mass shooting in 
United States history committed by a single individual; 
(8) on November 5, 2017, 27 people were shot and 
killed at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas; 
(9) on February 14, 2018, 17 students and staff 
were shot and killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High 
School in Parkland, Florida; 
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(10) on October 27, 2018, 11 persons were shot and 
killed at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Penn-
sylvania; 
(11) on August 3, 2019, 23 people were shot and 
murdered during an act of domestic terrorism in El Paso, 
Texas, considered one of the deadliest attacks on a His-
panic community in modern American history; 
(12) on May 14, 2022, 10 Black Americans were 
shot and killed in a racially motivated rampage at a su-
permarket in Buffalo, New York; and 
(13) on May 24, 2022, 19 students and 2 teachers 
were shot and killed at Robb Elementary School in 
Uvalde, Texas; 
Whereas in the United States— 
(1) 111 people are shot and killed every day; 
(2) 45,222 people died from gun-related injuries in 
the United States in 2020, representing a 43-percent in-
crease from a decade prior; 
(3) the gun homicide rate in the United States is at 
least 25 times higher than in other high-income coun-
tries; 
(4) 54 percent of gun-related deaths in the United 
States were suicides in 2020; 
(5) there have already been more than 200 mass 
shootings in 2022 where 4 or more people have been 
shot; 
(6) there were at least 692 mass shootings in 2021, 
killing 704 people and injuring 2,839 others; and 
(7) 61 active shooter incidents led to over 100 
deaths in 2021, a 52.5-percent increase from 2020, ac-
cording to the Federal Bureau of Investigation; 
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Whereas in an average year, at least 10,300 hate crimes in-
volve a firearm every year, more than 28 every day, in 
the United States; 
Whereas communities of color are disproportionately im-
pacted by gun violence; 
Whereas neighborhoods suffering from gun violence are the 
same areas that lack economic opportunity, adequate in-
frastructure, access to quality schools, and housing op-
portunities; 
Whereas, every month, approximately 70 women are shot and 
killed by an intimate partner; 
Whereas intimate partner violence is a serious public health 
problem and rates of severe physical violence and violence 
inflicted with a firearm, is predominantly experienced by 
women with male partners; 
Whereas 92 percent of all women killed with guns in high- 
income countries in 2015 were from the United States; 
Whereas 16 percent of gay and lesbian youth, 11 percent of 
bisexual youth, and 29 percent of transgender youth have 
been threatened with a weapon on school property, ac-
cording to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey; 
Whereas, in 2016, the American Medical Association adopted 
policy calling gun violence in the United States ‘‘a public 
health crisis’’ requiring a comprehensive public health re-
sponse and solution; 
Whereas, in 2016, the American Medical Association’s presi-
dent noted that ‘‘with approximately 30,000 men, women 
and children dying each year at the barrel of a gun in 
elementary schools, movie theaters, workplaces, houses of 
worship and on live television, the United States faces a 
public health crisis of gun violence’’; 
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Whereas, in 2018, the American College of Physicians issued 
a position paper detailing how ‘‘firearm violence con-
tinues to be a public health crisis that requires the na-
tion’s immediate attention’’; 
Whereas, in 2019, a study by Florida Atlantic University’s 
Schmidt College of Medicine found that more United 
States school-age children die from guns than on-duty 
United States police or global military fatalities; 
Whereas the American Public Health Association finds that 
gun violence is a leading cause of premature death in the 
United States; 
Whereas, in 2019, Black children and teens had the highest 
gun death rate, followed by American Indian and Alaska 
Native children and teens; 
Whereas, in 2020, guns became the leading cause of death 
for children in the United States; 
Whereas, in 2020, 10,197 children and young adults aged 0 
to 24 died as a result of gun violence; 
Whereas, in 2021, the Governor of New York declared gun 
violence a public health emergency; 
Whereas, in 2021, the mayor of Washington, DC, declared 
gun violence to be a public health crisis and announced 
a ‘‘whole-government’’ approach to combating this crisis; 
Whereas, in 2021, the Governor of Illinois declared gun vio-
lence a public health crisis; 
Whereas, in January 2022, officials in Cincinnati, Ohio, de-
clared gun violence a public health crisis; 
Whereas, in February 2022, the mayor of Columbus, Ohio, 
declared gun violence a public health crisis; 
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Whereas, in June 2022, the Guilford Country Commissioners 
in North Carolina declared gun violence a public health 
crisis; 
Whereas a public health crisis is defined as meeting the fol-
lowing 4 criteria— 
(1) the condition affects many people, is seen as a 
threat to the public, and is continuing to increase; 
(2) the condition is distributed unfairly; 
(3) preventive measures could reduce the effects of 
the condition; and 
(4) those preventive measures are not yet in place; 
Whereas gun violence meets the criteria of a public health 
crisis; 
Whereas, in 1979, the Surgeon General identified violent be-
havior as a key public health priority; 
Whereas, in 1992, the Centers for Disease Control and Pre-
vention established the National Center for Injury Pre-
vention and Control as the lead Federal organization for 
violence prevention; 
Whereas the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention out-
lines a 4-step public health approach to violence preven-
tion, rooted in the scientific method— 
(1) define and monitor the problem; 
(2) identify risk and protective factors; 
(3) develop and test prevention strategies; and 
(4) assure widespread adoption; 
Whereas a Federal public health crisis declaration defines 
gun violence as a pervasive health issue and alerts the 
Nation of the need to enact immediate and effective 
cross-governmental efforts to prevent gun violence; and 
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