From the Coalition on Human Needs (http://www.chn.org):
Gun violence is a public health epidemic, one that is killing an absurd and increasing number of people every year. Rather than tolerate shooting after shooting — ignoring the toll of mass shootings, suicide, domestic violence, accidental deaths, interpersonal conflict, and more –we’ve got to figure out the root causes and research ways to prevent the next tragedy before it happens.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) researched gun violence in the 1980s and 1990s. These studies contributed to the creation of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994. But the Dickey Amendment, first introduced in 1996 and supported by the gun lobby, started prohibiting any activities that “may be used to advocate or promote gun control.” This language has been an effective ban on gun violence research.
Last year, Congress finally clarified that the CDC and NIH are ALLOWED to research gun violence, yet without funding dedicated to this research, this clarification does little. The House has now allocated $50 million in the budget for gun safety, firearm injury, and mortality prevention research. We must demand the Senate act.
Sign the petition to demand the Senate include gun safety research in the budget at https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/sign-the-petition-the-senate-must-support-gun-violence-research.
Nearly 40,000 Americans died from gun violence in 2018. There have been over 350 mass shootings in the U.S. in the past year — nearly one per day — and gun violence in all its forms collectively takes the lives of over 100 people per day.
The Senate must allow us to understand why, as the first step to ending this epidemic.
Sign the petition today to demand the Senate include gun safety research in the budget.
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