WASHINGTON - The U.S. Surgeon General this week declared gun violence a public health crisis, driven by the fast-growing number of injuries and deaths involving firearms in the country.

The advisory issued by Dr. Vivek Murthy, the nation’s top doctor, came as the U.S. grappled with another summer weekend marked by mass shootings that left dozens of people dead or wounded.

To drive down gun deaths, Murthy calls on the U.S. to ban “assault weapons and large-capacity magazines for civilian use,” introduce universal background checks for purchasing guns, regulate the industry, pass laws that would restrict their use in public spaces and penalize people who fail to safely store their weapons.

None of those suggestions can be implemented nationwide without legislation passed by Congress, which typically recoils at gun control measures. Some state legislatures, however, have enacted or may consider some of the surgeon general’s proposals.

Doctors quickly praised Murthy’s advisory. The American Academy of Family Physicians, for example, has considered gun violence a public health epidemic for over a decade.

“Family physicians have long understood, and have seen first hand, the devastating impact firearm violence has on our patients and the communities we serve,” the group’s president, Steven Furr, said in a statement.

Murthy’s advisory, however, promises to be controversial with the gun lobby and will certainly incense Republican lawmakers, most of whom opposed his confirmation - twice - to the job over his statements on gun violence.

The National Rifle Association promptly rebuked Murthy’s advisory.

“This is an extension of the Biden Administration’s war on law-abiding gun owners,” Randy Kozuch, the organization’s president, said in a statement on X.

Children and younger Americans, in particular, are suffering from gun violence, Murthy notes in his advisory called “Firearm Violence: A Public Health Crisis in America.” Suicide by gun rates have increased by nearly 70% for those between the ages of 10 to 14. Children in the U.S. are far more likely to die from gun wounds than children in other countries, the research he gathered shows.

For pediatricians, talking with families about locking up their guns away from their children has become a routine part of well visits, said Benjamin Hoffman, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics. When children can’t get access to a gun, it prevents a large chunk of gun deaths and injuries - accidental shootings and suicides.

“Having access to a firearm for a child who is experiencing a behavioral health crisis is an absolute recipe for the most tragic things you can imagine,” Hoffman said.

In addition to new regulations, Murthy calls for an increase in gun violence research and for the health system to promote and educate patients about gun safety and proper storage during checkups.