White House Removes Surgeon General’s Gun Violence Advisory Webpage

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in February directing the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) to take down a webpage from the Office of the Surgeon General (OSG) with an advisory on gun violence. A link to the Office of the Surgeon General’s publications on firearm violence now displays a “Page Not Found” message.

Trump issued the executive order last month calling for the attorney general to “examine all orders, regulations, guidance, plans, international agreements, and other actions of executive departments and agencies” related to Second Amendment rights and all “Presidential and agencies’ actions from January 2021 through January 2025 that purport to promote safety but may have impinged on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens,” according to the order.

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“HHS and the Office of the Surgeon General are complying with President Trump’s Executive Order on Protecting Second Amendment Rights,” HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said in a statement.

The advisory’s removal follows the apparent shutdown of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which was established under the Biden administration. The office ceased operations in January, and its website no longer works. During its tenure, the office launched the first-ever federal Gun Violence Emergency Response Team, involving the FBI, FEMA and other federal agencies, to manage the federal response to mass shootings and community violence.

“By removing this important public health advisory with lifesaving resources, President Trump has chosen to prioritize gun industry profits over protecting kids and families,” Executive Director Emma Brown of Giffords, a gun violence prevention organization, told CNN. “Guns have been the number one killer of American children and adolescents since 2020, and non-partisan health care experts have understood gun violence as a public health crisis for years. Under President Trump’s first term, gun homicides rose 34%.”

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy in 2024 released an advisory labeling gun violence as a public health emergency in the U.S. He advocated for a data-driven strategy to address the issue and urged the prohibition of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines for civilian use. The advisory marked the first instance in which the nation’s top public health authority addressed firearm violence and its effects on public health.

“Firearm violence is an urgent public health crisis that has led to loss of life, unimaginable pain, and profound grief for far too many Americans,” Murthy said in a statement at the time.

Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, selected by Trump to succeed Murthy as surgeon general, has yet to have her confirmation hearing scheduled. Nesheiwat is a family physician from New York and a former medical contributor for Fox News. According to The New York Times, she was involved in a childhood gun accident that resulted in her father’s death.