At least let the Centers for Disease Control RESEARCH gun-violence!

[KingOrfeo]

Story here:

How Congress Blocked Research on Gun Violence

The ugly campaign by the NRA to shut down studies at the CDC.

By Paul D. Thacker|Posted Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012, at 5:38 PM ET


After the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, calls for gun-control legislation have begun. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said on NBC's Meet the Press that she plans to introduce a bill to ban assault weapons. Even West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, who calls himself a gun supporter, says he sees no reason for these types of weapons.But as Congress considers new laws, the scientific research we need to craft the best policies is in short supply. This is by design.

In the 1990s, politicians backed by the NRA attacked researchers for publishing data on firearm research. For good measure, they also went after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for funding the research. According to the NRA, such science is not “legitimate.” To make sure federal agencies got the message, Rep. Jay Dickey (R-Ark.) sponsored an amendment that stripped $2.6 million from the CDC’s budget, the exact amount it had spent on firearms research the previous year.

But last summer, Dickey recanted. No longer in office, he wrote an editorial stating that “scientific research should be conducted into preventing firearm injuries and that ways to prevent firearm deaths can be found without encroaching on the rights of legitimate gun owners.”

And here:

More than a hundred scientists from virtually every major U.S. university told Biden's task force in a letter that research restrictions pushed by the NRA have stopped the United States from finding solutions to gun violence.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has cut gun safety research by 96 percent since the mid-1990s, according to one estimate. Congress, pushed by the gun lobby, in 1996 put restrictions on CDC funding of gun research. Restrictions on other agencies were added in later years.

And here:

Since the late 1990s, research into gun violence dried up at federal agencies when funding for it was rescinded from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and congressional budget riders chilled interest in pursing the topic following pressure from gun advocates.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said he will introduce a bill that rescinds the barriers to fund this basic research.

“We’re talking about data collection, fact-finding, scientific research that will inform policymakers, the Congress, as well as advocates,” Blumenthal said.

Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday, according to news reports, indicated that the administration’s package on gun control measures, mental health services and the effect of violent video images will also look at the ability of the government to conduct research on gun violence.

 

[LadyVer]

Will be interesting to see what happens next week.

 

[SeaDaddy1]

Why the CDC? I know it's an airborne epidemic, but it's psychological and mental. Not physically contagious unless your an idiot.

 

[Bert Notorius]

i don't suppose they could just ask the military and save all that money. they would know a thing or two about guns.

 

[SeaDaddy1]

i don't suppose they could just ask the military and save all that money. they would know a thing or two about guns.

But that's too obvious. And Biden is too busy letting his alligator mouth overload his hummingbird ass.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Why the CDC?

Because they study epidemiology and public-health problems in general, which this is, and no other federal agency is better-suited to study this one. (There is the ATF, but that is essentially a police force and does not specialize in scientific studies.) Gun-violence does not involve viruses or bacteria, but it is a thing requiring the same kind of statistical study you use when evaluating the frequency and distribution of influenza outbreaks.

 

[KingOrfeo]

i don't suppose they could just ask the military and save all that money. they would know a thing or two about guns.

The Defense Department would not be suited to the task either, for the same reasons the ATF wouldn't; see post #6.

 

[Liar]

Still sounds weird that it's their table. It's a sociology question, innit?

 

[about_average]

I'd like to see it done, for sure. But I'd want it to be very detailed.
How many shootings were drug dealer on drugs dealer, or other drug war related shootings.
How many shootings were self defense. Of those how many were of an attacker armed with something other than a gun.
How many were accidental. Of those how many were where the person with the gun shot him or her self, vs someone else.
How many shootings of each category were by people trained in firearms safety and use.
You get the idea.
But I'm willing to be there will be major lumping together of data.

 

[koalabear]

Still sounds weird that it's their table. It's a sociology question, innit?

The anti-gun crowd put it in CDC to try to get bullets banned on the lead angle. Failed.

I'd like to see it done, for sure. But I'd want it to be very detailed.
How many shootings were drug dealer on drugs dealer, or other drug war related shootings.
How many shootings were self defense. Of those how many were of an attacker armed with something other than a gun.
How many were accidental. Of those how many were where the person with the gun shot him or her self, vs someone else.
How many shootings of each category were by people trained in firearms safety and use.
You get the idea.
But I'm willing to be there will be major lumping together of data.

FBI has all the stats already, no need for duplicates, especially from CDC.

 

[Bert Notorius]

It doesn't matter what the data shows, Washington knows they can't legislate guns away.

 

[SeaDaddy1]

Because they study epidemiology and public-health problems in general, which this is, and no other federal agency is better-suited to study this one. (There is the ATF, but that is essentially a police force and does not specialize in scientific studies.) Gun-violence does not involve viruses or bacteria, but it is a thing requiring the same kind of statistical study you use when evaluating the frequency and distribution of influenza outbreaks.

I didn't know how the CDC had anything to do with firearms. It does make me wonder why an amendment was passed to strip the CDC's budget of 2.6 million. The exact amount the story says the CDC had spent on firearms research the previous year.

 

[Bert Notorius]

I didn't know how the CDC had anything to do with firearms. It does make me wonder why an amendment was passed to strip the CDC's budget of 2.6 million. The exact amount the story says the CDC had spent on firearms research the previous year.

makes you wonder what else they're wasting money on.

 

[unregistered]

 

[KingOrfeo]

I didn't know how the CDC had anything to do with firearms.

It has a broader brief/writ/scope than the name implies.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services headquartered in Druid Hills, unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, in Greater Atlanta.[1][2][3] It works to protect public health and safety by providing information to enhance health decisions, and it promotes health through partnerships with state health departments and other organizations. The CDC focus national attention on developing and applying disease prevention and control (especially infectious diseases and foodborne pathogens and other microbial infections), environmental health, occupational safety and health, health promotion, injury prevention and education activities designed to improve the health of the people of the United States. The CDC is the United States' national public health institute and is a founding member of the International Association of National Public Health Institutes.

Gun-violence certainly lies within that.

 

[LadyVer]

"At least let the Centers for Disease Control RESEARCH gun-violence!"

Let them investigate mental illness and how it's exacerbated by liberalism.

 

[KingOrfeo]

"At least let the Centers for Disease Control RESEARCH gun-violence!"

Let them investigate mental illness and how it's exacerbated by liberalism.

Like a "manure" or "hot air" political joke, that one would work just exactly as well substituting "conservative" for "liberal," or "Democrat" for "Republican."

And a political joke of that form is one never worth making. It is free of any actual political content. It is merely a snarl.

Learn that.