House Panel Allots $50M to Study Gun Violence

One of the most common attacks on the National Rifle Association is that it supposedly prevents academics from doing research on firearms. “[Academics] were forced to stop their work at the point of a gun—or at least at the insistence of National Rifle Association,” wrote the Washington Post of the 1996 Dickey Amendment. Susan Sorenson of the University of Pennsylvania believes that the loss of federal funding has “decimated the field.”

On Monday, the Democrat controlled House Committee on Appropriations allocated $50 million more for Public Health research. These medical professionals try applying the tools that they developed for disease to study crime, accidental death, and suicide.

Despite these claims, the much reviled Dickey Amendment never actually forbade research funded by the Centers for Disease Control. It simply stated: “None of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be used to advocate or promote gun control.” The Amendment came in response to top CDC officials advocating various gun control laws, such as prohibiting people from carrying concealed handguns.