Scientific American: The U.S. Congress Has Started to Revive Gun Violence Research—and Must Follow Through

Every year in the United States about 36,000 people are killed and over 100,000 are injured by gun violence. Since 2015, the CDC has identified an upward trend in the number of people killed by guns. To combat this issue, the United States House of Representatives has put forward a bill that would allocate 50 million dollars to be used by the CDC and National Institute of Health to investigate effective prevention efforts for gun violence. This is incredibly significant because in 1996 research was found that linked gun ownership to increased violence, however, legislators were lobbied by the NRA to halt any further research and prevent the CDC from promoting gun control. The research that would be permitted by passing this bill could identify basic important information for dealing with gun violence, the percentage of people who commit gun violence who legally possessed the guns they used, how how best to stop underground firearm sales, and whether existing permitting, licensing or background-check laws are actually being used to disarm dangerous people.

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