The U.S. surgeon general has declared gun violence a “public health crisis.” Dr. Vivek Murthy made the declaration in a video statement released Tuesday — following years of pressure by gun control activists.

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy: “Gun violence has now become the leading cause of death among children and teens. And that wasn’t true a decade ago or two decades ago. And so I’m issuing this advisory because I want people to understand the urgency of addressing gun violence, the importance of seeing it not as a political issue but as a public health issue. and if we see it in that way, if we apply a public health approach to gun violence, we can do what we did with cigarettes and with car accident-related deaths, which is, ultimately, to make people safer, to reduce the toll on their health, and ultimately improve people’s well-being.”

The National Institutes of Health reports that last year nearly 43,000 people died in the United States from gun-related injuries.