As more mass shootings grow into a daily occurrence in the US, it seems we can’t turn to lawmakers
for solutions, but can we turn to science?
Science can tell us a lot.
About the world around us, the universe beyond, even what’s going on in the cells in our
finger tips.
But it can’t tell us a whole lot about gun violence.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institute of Health
(NIH) have been banned from getting any kind of federal funding for firearm related studies
for the last 20 years.
In 1996, Former Republican Congressman Jay Dickey of Arkansas pushed for an amendment
on a funding bill that forbid the use of federal funds on studies that “promote gun control.
A move he’s come to later regret, he even told NPR that he wants “science and science
investigation and examination to take the place of politics”.
He originally meant for the bill to stop “the collection of data to go to gun control advocacy”
But the vague language put the brakes on any further research.
Scientists just became too scared that they would lose their funding if they studied gun
violence, and rightfully so.
Congress retroactively punished the CDC for carrying out gun research the previous year.
In 1995, the CDC spent 2.6 million dollars on gun violence research.
At first some members of congress wanted to strip all the funding for the entire CDC’s
injury control center, a total of over 40 million dollars.
But they compromised for taking just the same amount that had been spent on gun violence
the previous year, 2.6 million.
With such large sums at risk, scientists were scared to study it and “Sponsors were spooked
to fund stuff that had to do with guns” according to one researcher from Duke University.
So it’s no wonder we know so little.
I mean over the past four decades, NIH has funded just three studies on gun violence.
Check out a comparison of NIH studies.
They have studied disease like rabies, cholera, and polio.
Take rabies for example.
It killed just 63 people globally from the years 1973 to 2012.
The NIH completed 89 studies on it.
In comparison, over the same time period gun violence killed over 4 million people, yet
the NIH completed just 3 studies on the subject.
You might be saying, "But guns aren’t diseases!"
But the fact is, research organizations like the CDC and the NIH study other things potentially
harmful to human health besides diseases, like deaths by drowning or car accidents.
And even if they study these things, they aren’t suggesting we ban pools or cars,
they are just interested in making them SAFER.
And in 2013, President Obama agreed.
After the wake of the horrific Newtown Elementary School Shooting, he gave an executive order
that the CDC and the NIH return to researching gun violence.
But unfortunately, not much has changed.
Congress still blocks funding on firearms when they can and researchers are still left
quaking in their sensible shoes.
CDC spokeswoman Courtney Lenard told the Washington Post that “It is possible for us to conduct
firearm-related research...but our resources are very limited.”
So what do researchers know about gun violence?
Well according to the CDC we know that around 33,600 people die every year from firearms
across all categories.
That’s about the same number as those who die from car accidents.
And from the few studies available, like one published in the New England Journal of Medicine,
found that having a gun in the home is linked with an increase in the risk of homicide in
the home.
Other risk factors include substance abuse and a history of violence.
And another study from the Journal of Epidemiology found that having a gun in the home increases
the risk of suicide for adult men.
But there are so many basic questions we have yet to answer.
For starters, no one knows how many guns are out there in the US.
There’s no national registry.
We don’t know why people want to own a gun or even what percentage of gun owners go on
to commit a crime with their firearm.
Basic things that science needs to answer.
Like Richard Berk, a criminology professor at the University of Pennsylvania said in
a letter to Joe Biden, “I see no upside to ignorance”.
So I guess more research is needed.
I know I know, you’re probably sick of hearing about gun violence and mass shootings.
But these events are just as horrific even the 300th time around.
So why have we stopped caring about mass shootings?
Have we become desensitized?
Trace has the answer in this video, right here.