Thread: How We Lost Funding For Gun Injury Research

How We Lost Funding For Gun Injury Research | WLRN

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—the federal agency responsible for safeguarding Americans’ health—used to support research into gun-related injuries. But about 20 years ago, that all came to a grinding halt.

Back then, Dr. Mark Rosenberg was the first director for the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. He drew inspiration for what he was doing from how the United States addressed the epidemic of car crash deaths decades earlier. “We said this is unacceptable and we are going to use scientific research to stop these needless deaths,” says Rosenberg. He points out that the country responded to the crisis by investing hundreds of millions of dollars and developing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “And that research resulted in totally redesigning the car,” says Rosenberg. “And we said, ‘why don't we apply the same thing to the epidemic of gun violence?’ “

So Rosenberg and his fellow CDC researchers started asking basic questions about who gets shot and under what circumstances. In 1993, a study that was funded by Rosenberg’s department found a correlation between having a gun in the house and an increased risk of homicide.

“The National Rifle Association caught wind of this,” says Zakrison. “That was like the spark that made them support the omnibus bill of 1996, which essentially kneecapped all funding at the CDC level in terms of looking into firearm-related violence and ways to prevent this injury in households.”
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God damned nra gun pushers.. to them its all about market share and profits for the gun industry that they represent.

Yeah, why wouldn't they want that research done? It's because they know it'll show how the mere presence of firearms substantially increases the chance of death or injury caused by firearms. Bastards.

The CDC was shut down from doing gun related research after they decided to parade around as an anti-gun lobbyist group.

Moreover, the CDC has not been prevented from doing any gun related research since 2013.

Wow, the Centers for Disease Control. Not what there mission is, to follow some political agenda.