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Abstract
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For more than 20 years, Congress has deterred federal funding for gun violence research by including a provision known as the Dickey Amendment in annual appropriations legislation. The provision prohibits the use of federal funds to advocate or promote gun control.
With public interest in gun issues heightened after a series of notorious mass shootings and widespread student protests, Congress reached a compromise in passing an omnibus spending bill in March 2018. The Dickey Amendment has not gone away, but a report accompanying the spending bill clarifies that the amendment does not prohibit federal funding of research on the causes of gun violence. This compromise may help reduce the Dickey Amendment’s chilling effect on gun violence research, but it remains to be seen whether more funding will actually be devoted to such research.
The Dickey Amendment arose in response to efforts made in the early 1990s to begin treating gun violence as a public health issue. In 1992, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) converted its violence prevention division into a center that would lead federal efforts to reduce deaths and injuries resulting from violence. Soon, studies funded by the center began to draw attention to the gun issue. In particular, a 1993 study by Arthur Kellermann and his colleagues revealed an increased risk of homicide associated with presence of a firearm in a home.1 The Kellermann study and other similar investigations struck a nerve and began to receive widespread attention in newspapers and other media.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) accused the CDC of being biased against guns and began lobbying for the elimination of the injury prevention center. Although the center survived, the NRA persuaded its allies in Congress to take action. Led by Representative Jay Dickey of Arkansas, they added a provision to a 1996 spending bill ...
Language: en |