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.