Rand Paul Blocks Surgeon General Nominee for Believing Guns Are Hazardous To Your Health

Rand Paul, who is an eye doctor, has an opinion about the new Surgeon General nominee. Like most of Rand Paul’s opinions, it’s not based in fact:

On Wednesday — two years to the day after George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin — Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) placed a hold on President Barack Obama’s nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, over Murthy’s view that gun violence represents a significant public health threat.

“In his efforts to curtail Second Amendment rights, Dr. Murthy has continually referred to guns as a public health issue on par with heart disease and has diminished the role of mental health in gun violence,” wrote Paul in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

But as Sy Mukherjee at ThinkProgress writes, guns are a public health issue, and anyone who denies that fact is ignoring reality. Go read the whole post.