Ex-pol: Uh, I was wrong on health & weapons

TWO DECADES of gunfire made him change his mind.

Former Arkansas Rep. Jay Dickey, who spearheaded efforts in 1996 to block the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from conducting gun violence research, is calling on Congress to reverse the amendment that carries his name.

“It is my position that somehow or someway we should slowly but methodically fund such research until a solution is reached,” he wrote in a letter released through the office of Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.). “Doing nothing is no longer an acceptable solution.”

The CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control had performed the research from 1986 to 1996. The National Rifle Association pushed to eliminate the study — but after that effort failed, Dickey sponsored an amendment to an appropriations bill that forbade the CDC from using funds to “advocate or promote gun control.”

After the measure passed, $2.6 million — the amount the agency had spent each year on gun research — was redirected to the study of brain injuries.

“It is not a public health threat,” Dickey stated at the time.

The former GOP congressman, 75, reached at home Thursday, said “political purposes” should have never gotten in the way of the issue. He conceded he “should have done something” to see that the research continue.

“Research will lead us to a solution,” Dickey said. “I have no idea what it’s going to be. I just couldn’t stay quiet any longer. It doesn’t look like anybody else is trying to get a solution.”

Dickey compared gun violence to car accidents. Highway regulation and research aren’t meant to deter car ownership — they’re meant for safety, he said.

“(Gun violence) is an insidious social problem that we have in America, and it’s getting worse, in my opinion,” he said.

Dickey said he was “almost numb” as reports emerged of Wednesday’s shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., in which 14 people were killed and 21 wounded.

“It’s just a shame ... innocent people,” he said.