From the Union of Concerned Scientists (http://www.ucsusa.org):
Throughout the country, people are speaking up and demanding solutions to gun violence. High school students from Marjory Stoneham Douglas and across the United States, the Movement for Black Lives, and others have been urging our elected officials to do more to prevent gun violence.
Unfortunately, while we see the headlines that tell a harrowing story about how prevalent gun violence is, we lack government data to examine the extent of the problem or attempt to solve its root causes.
In fact, even as the scientific community labeled gun violence a public health crisis in 2016 and called for a greater public health response including federal research, a policy within the federal budget essentially prevents the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from researching gun violence, obstructing the development of effective solutions.
As the country demands Congress work to stop preventable gun deaths, lawmakers are deliberating the federal budget and can lift this anti-science ban on federal research on gun violence.
For too long special interest groups, including the National Rifle Association, have been able to manipulate the budget process. At this pivotal moment, we can lessen these groups’ hold on the process, and move toward sensible solutions to preventable deaths and injuries.
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