Let's get the CDC back researching gun violence, then most of our conversations can be filled with data in addition to strong opinions. Maybe this is something all on both sides can agree upon.
This from the originator of the Dickie amendment.
WASHINGTON Looking back, nearly 20 years later, Jay Dickey is apologetic.
He is gone from Congress, giving him space to reflect on his namesake amendment that, to this day, continues to define the rigid politics of gun policy. When he helped pass a restriction of federal funding for gun violence research in 1996, the goal wasnt to be so suffocating, he insisted. But the measure was just that, dampening federal research for years and discouraging researchers from entering the field.
Now, as mass shootings pile up, including last weeks killing of nine at a community college in Oregon, Dickey admitted to carrying a sense of responsibility for progress not made.
I wish we had started the proper research and kept it going all this time, Dickey, an Arkansas Republican, told the Huffington Post in an interview. I have regrets.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entr...esearch-amendment_us_561333d7e4b022a4ce5f45bf
And this from the Rand Corp. (
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...studies-gun-policies-violent-crime/383083002/) ....
"The RAND Corp., an influential think tank, created a research initiative called Gun Policy in America to provide a factual basis for the debate about gun policies to determine which work and which dont.
But in reviewing available research, RAND found a lack of studies that documented laws reducing violence rather than just coinciding with the results. A review of thousands of studies yielded 62 with causal results about gun policies, only two-thirds of them in the last 15 years.
The reason: Federal funding for gun studies largely dried up 20 years ago. Annual spending bills in Congress since 1996 say no funding at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be used to advocate or promote gun control.
The shooting deaths of 17 people at a Florida high school on Feb. 14 rekindled the nationwide conversation about gun policies. President Trump, lawmakers in Congress and Florida Gov. Rick Scott and his state Legislature are each grappling over whether more restrictive laws are needed."