Brady Calls on Appropriators to Fund Research into Gun Violence

Washington, D.C., December 13, 2019 – Today, Brady called on Appropriators in the United States House of Representatives and Senate to fund research into gun violence.

Brady Vice President of Policy Christian Heyne stated:

“While Appropriators negotiate our government’s funding this weekend, they’d do well to remember that every day until that bill gets a vote, 100 Americans will die from guns. It has been 23 years since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) studied gun violence. We desperately need the government to fund research into this public health crisis. Nearly 40,000 people died in 2017 from gun violence and it is incumbent upon our government to do everything in its power to prevent that bloodshed. Not understanding the full complexity of gun violence in the United States prevents us from discovering additional policies and programs that could prevent this loss of life. We can’t accept more inaction.”

Last year, Congress clarified that the Dickey Amendment, a provision that the NRA lobbied for and was inserted into a 1996 omnibus spending bill that forbid the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from allocating appropriated funds to “advocate or promote gun control,” did not prevent the CDC from using funds to study gun violence.

Heyne continued:

“Since the clarification of the Dickey Amendment, we could have studied gun violence in the United States for nearly 20 months. That’s almost two years of research from our nation’s top research agencies. While we continue to see incredible and insightful private research from some of our brightest minds to inform our nation’s response to gun violence – the full force and funding of the federal government would only catalyze that work.”

Last year, the United States Congress again failed to include any funding for gun violence research, even after the Dickey Amendment had been clarified.