This Senator Wants to Revive Federal Research on Gun Violence, 22 Years After Congress Banned It

[deminks]

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/02/the-government-banned-gun-violence-research-22-years-ago-this-senator-wants-to-put-an-end-to-it/

On Tuesday, as teenagers swarmed the Florida legislature to advocate for gun control, Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico) renewed a familiar call for Congress to repeal an amendment that blocks the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from funding research into the public health effects of gun violence.

Heinrich’s plea comes less than a week after a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., left 17 people dead and injured 14 others, motivating teenagers across the country to protest lax gun laws. In a statement, Heinrich called the repeal of the restriction, known as the Dickey Amendment, a “no-brainer.” He added that in the midst of Congress’ inaction, the amendment’s removal would let lawmakers use “scientific information as our guiding light to combat the gun violence epidemic that is threatening our country.”

Last week, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said during a House subcommittee hearing that the provision does not impede the CDC’s ability to research, it only prevents it from doing advocacy work, adding: “We believe we’ve got a very important mission with our work with serious mental illness as well as our ability to do research on the causes of violence and the causes behind tragedies” like the recent shooting in Florida.

It isn’t the first time that Democrats and thousands of medical professionals have called for eliminating the provision, written by former Congressman Jay Dickey (R-Ark.) and enacted in 1996 as part of an appropriations bill in the aftermath of a mass shooting. After the mass shooting in San Bernardino in 2015, nine medical associations urged Congress to overturn the amendment. Weeks after a mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., left 49 people dead, Republican lawmakers impeded efforts to eliminate the Dickey Amendment once again during a mark-up in the House.

Dickey eventually changed his position on the matter and called for Congress to overturn the amendment. “Doing nothing is no longer an acceptable solution,” he wrote in a 2015 letter to Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.)

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Guess who?

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-gun-research-funding-20160614-snap-story.html

http://www.newsweek.com/government-wont-fund-gun-research-stop-violence-because-nra-lobbying-675794

http://abcnews.go.com/US/federal-government-study-gun-violence/story?id=50300379