Reminder: There Has Never Been a Ban on Studying Gun Violence

I can’t tell you how many people I’ve met around the country over the past few years who sincerely believe the study of “gun violence” was banned by the government. The misconception is almost surely driven by confusing pieces like this one in the Washington Post today, which claims that “Congressional deal could fund gun violence research for first time since 1990s.”

Hundreds of news stories over the past few years have maintained that the all-powerful NRA worked to institute a CDC “ban,” or an effective ban, including the above Washington Post piece. In truth, nothing has ever stopped the CDC from asking for specific funding to research “gun violence” if it pleased. Nothing has stopped the CDC from allocating its own funds for a study on gun violence.

The Dickey Amendment banned the CDC from using “funds made available for injury prevention and control” to be used to “advocate or promote gun control.” That law was passed after Dr. Mark Rosenberg, the head of gun research in 1990s, bragged that he was going to use CDC — already doing as shoddy work on firearms as it would later do on obesity — to engage in an ideological campaign against firearms.

Stories relaying the horrors of Dickey Amendment like to mention that Congress “stripped” funding from the CDC. It’s true that Congress cut $2.6 million in 1996. Since then the CDC’s budget has more than tripled to over six billion dollars.