From the Union of Concerned Scientists (http://www.ucsusa.org):
In the past five years, there have been nearly 300 school shootings and more than 1,300 mass shootings. Gun violence has killed more than 65,750 people, with America’s communities of color facing a massively disproportionate risk of gun injury or death. And, as the March for Our Lives demonstrated, the public demand for action is growing.
Congress has made one promising move on this public health crisis by opening the door for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to conduct gun violence research. This research had been effectively blocked for more than two decades. This is one of the most opportune times in recent history: Let’s pave the way for the federal science to help us shape solutions to end the epidemic of gun violence.
With the new clarity in the federal budget that the CDC can research gun violence, the next step is to make that research a reality. Call on Alex Azar, secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), to issue guidance to CDC scientists to resume research on gun violence.
Secretary Azar has been on the record in support of federal scientists investigating gun violence prevention—and has even said that HHS will be “proactive” in this research. Now is the time to send the message loud and clear: tell Secretary Azar that the American public needs him to be a man of his word.
We cannot afford to sideline science as a tool to help create effective policy solutions to this public health crisis. How many more casualties must there be to justify federal investment in research for the safety of the US public?
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