Why gun violence research has been shut down for 20 years - The Washington Post

Lamenting the absence of studies has been a part of our post-massacre what-can-be-done for a number of years and a larger number of mass shootings. But what could research do to get us out of these dire straits?Scientists, lab coat-ed spreadsheet fillers, create the data that uncovers the truth. I'm not sure if you've heard yet but truth is a powerful thing. Evidence is the pointy triangle on which change is leveraged.Traffic deaths, often sited by gun lobby as even with gun deaths, get a healthy amount of study. The Federal Transit Administration gave out 7 million in grants to advance transportation safety.  Research is done, evidence is collected, and regulations (seat belts, which I find sexy) are put into place. The auto industry isn't going to make those crumple zones, laminate that glass, put in that little switch that turns your passenger airbag on and off so a tiny seat occupant is not killed by its deployment, out of the goodness of its heart.To make industry safer, we need regulations. To make regulations, we need evidence. To make evidence, we need research.The gun industry has put an impressive chill on learning anything about the safety of firearms. The 1996 Dickey Amendment, legislating that no research may advocate gun control, has been reauthorized every year by Congress. Data quoted in the aftermath of mass shootings is culled from CDC databases that collect cause of death information. CDC numbers tell us that guns are killing people in epic numbers. But epidemiological data alone does not a policy make.Source: Why gun violence research has been shut down for 20 years - The Washington Post