“The epidemic of deaths involving opioids continues to worsen,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden in a statement.

In a report released Thursday, the CDC said the number of heroin deaths in America continues to increase.

In a grim milestone, more people died from heroin-related causes than from gun homicides in 2015. As recently as 2007, gun homicides outnumbered heroin deaths by more than 5 to 1.

“The prescription opioid and heroin epidemic continues to devastate communities and families across the country—in large part because too many people still do not get effective substance use disorder treatment,” said Michael Botticelli, Director of National Drug Control Policy. “That is why the President has called since February for $1 billion in new funding to expand access to treatment.”

“Prescription opioid misuse and use of heroin and illicitly manufactured fentanyl are intertwined and deeply troubling problems,” Frieden said.

Notice the number of gun murders on this CDC report? 12,979. The next time Bloomberg or Newsom tries to use another number, make sure you point them back here to what their own government reports the number is. Not 300,000, not 30,000 – 12, 979.

Now we need to find the arrest rate for those murders and strengthen our criminal justice system to ensure those individuals are not allowed to kill again.

If the anti-gun violence agenda was serious about ending this epidemic, they’d take our suggestions to fix the system and truly end these senseless murders.

There is a way to end gun violence and gun homicides, but the answer isn’t a gun ban or gun control, it’s with the suggestions laid out by responsibly armed citizens, and it’s what we work so hard to ratify here in America.