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The majority of all firearm fatalities in the US are actually suicides. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in its June 2016 vital statistics report that in 2014, there were 33,594 firearm deaths in the United States. Of these, 63.7% were suicides.
Although firearms are not the most common method by which people in the US attempt suicide, they are the most lethal. 85 percent of suicide attempts by firearm result in death.
One would think even in today’s deeply divided political environment that Democrats and Republications would agree on funding government research to understand why gun violence is on the rise in America.
But the funding set aside in the House bill to conduct it has little chance of gaining any support in the Senate, due a little-known law called the “Dickey Amendment.”
And while it doesn’t specifically prohibit government funding from studying gun violence, it requires that “none of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) may be used to advocate or promote gun control.”
“Clearly, at CDC 20 years ago … they got the message that if you fund research that angers the gun lobby, you risk substantial cuts to your budget.”
That assessment from Daniel Webster at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research captures why nothing has been done at the federal level to gather data to help our country find solutions to the threat guns have on our public health.
Of all the violence, the interpersonal violence in the US-- and this is not just gun violence, it's all interpersonal violence ranging from hitting, kicking, punching, to more serious violence involving a weapon only about 4% is attributable to mental illness.
For almost 20 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been avoiding gun violence research. But new language in the spending bill signed by President Trump on Friday could change that. Dr. Mark Rosenberg once oversaw gun violence research at the CDC.
