President Obama has lifted the ban on funding research into gun violence, calling on scientists to increase support for work in this area.
My first reaction to this was amazement that such funding was banned in the first place – but it’s true. Congress banned research into gun-related violence in 1996 following the publication of a report in the New England Medical Journal into the underlying causes of gun violence.
The powerful National Rifle Association (NRA) objected to one of the research findings which showed living in a house with a firearm puts you at a significantly higher risk of homicide and suicide. The NRA then prompted republican Congressman Jay Dickey to sponsor a ban on the federal funding of research into gun violence. This ban has made it almost impossible for policy makers to take an evidence-based approach to reducing gun violence for the last 17 years.
Congressman Dickey has since changed his mind and has recently co-authored an article in the Washington Post. The title says it all : ”We won’t know the cause of gun violence until we look for it.”
Hopefully President Obama will enjoy similarly high levels of support when he seeks approval from Congress for $10 million funding into the causes of gun-related violence – the NRA will strongly resist this move.
Gun violence kills over 30,000 Americans every year, a figure Mr Obama seems to be working hard to reduce. Restoring research funding is only one of many initiatives to be introduced by the president, but it is a vital one. As Republic Senator Ed Markey puts it in the Huffington Post, it’s time to “Take the Blindfolds Off of Gun Violence Researchers”.
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