Time for the CDC to study gun violence---and police violence.
The CDC is a great site for the public to learn about health issues. It is also the hub of where research lands, and the county health departments send the information they collect from hospitals, physician offices, and follow up calls death to the state health departments which can add in information from trauma registry and death certificates, which then provides information to the CDC.
The amendment, which was first tucked into an appropriations bill signed into law by President Bill Clinton, stipulates that "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."
Why was the CDC shut down for gun control?
They lobbied the government to shut down the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control entirely. To compromise, Congress settled on the Dickey Amendment, which states: “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.”
Why the Feds don't research gun violence?
Dickey: Why the feds don't research gun violence. Passed in 1997 with the strong backing of the NRA, the so-called "Dickey Amendment" effectively bars the national Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from studying firearm violence -- an epidemic the American Medical Association has since dubbed "a public health crisis.".
Forty states send gun injury and death information to the CDC. Ten do not. The law prevents it from being required and from being studied for purposes of understanding root causes.
There is nothing that centralizes research on police caused injury and death. Several groups have taken it upon themselves to try to track this, but without regulations and requirements, there are many holes in their databases.
There are multiple lists and stats and databases, none complete. None going very far back. And none with the same rules of inclusion.
We have an easy route to both report and collect all gun violence and Police violence using the same systems that report Hepatitis C in the community and primary lung cancer deaths. It's there. Laws to maintain ignorance and prevent improvement are currently only serving the NRA and the Police Unions.
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