AFTER TWO DECADES, HOUSE VOTES TO FUND GUN VIOLENCE RESEARCH
The Educational to Stop Gun Violence applauds the House of Representatives for prioritizing gun violence research.
Washington, DC (June 19, 2019) — For more than two decades, both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institute of Health (NIH) have been left with a void in their research funding — funding for gun violence prevention. Today, the House took an important step towards ending this research freeze and passed the first appropriations minibus that includes $50 Million to support “firearm injury and mortality prevention research” divided evenly between CDC and NIH.
Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence Director of Federal Affairs Dakota Jablon issued the following statement:
“Nearly 40,000 Americans died from gun violence in 2017. The total firearm death rate increased 17 percent over the last decade, while the firearm suicide rate increased 19 percent over the same time period. Gun violence in all its forms is a public health crisis.
“For far too long, legislators have held gun violence researchers hostage by refusing to appropriate dedicated funds for gun violence research. As gun deaths have climbed, federal researchers and scientists have been limited in their efforts to research solutions to reduce American gun fatalities and injuries. Today, that finally begins to change.
“With proper funding, public health research can help us address our gun violence epidemic. We applaud the House of Representatives for making gun violence research a priority and urge the Senate to do the same.”
