The incident made him reconsider the years he had spent reporting on the lives cut short by gun violence — and the stress it had put on his body. He traces the bloody history Black Americans have with firearms, recalls gun violence in his own youth and follows his ancestors’ path back to Ghana. The book reads like a plea for people to see the humanity of those lost to gun violence — and for this country to care enough to act. The surgeon general declared gun violence a public health crisis. The nation’s top doctor issued an advisory on Tuesday declaring gun violence a public health crisis and prescribing policy changes to treat it as such.