A green light for gun research

For the first time since 1996, the coming year will likely see the federal government underwriting research on firearm violence and injury prevention. A provision inserted into an end-of-year spending bill in the House of Representatives would set aside a total of $25 million for the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to fund research on issues such as safer gun ownership, violence and suicide prevention, and the effect of policy initiatives on gun-related injuries.

Congress had already issued clarifying language aimed at overturning the 1996 Dickey amendment, which forbade the use of federal funds for research that could be used to advocate for gun control. The new action in the House comes against the backdrop of escalating mass shootings, and observers expect it to pass the Senate.

For a field that’s been starved of federal funds for more than 20 years, it’s a start. Health researchers interested in studying the effect of guns on injuries and deaths had largely moved on to other pastures, and the paucity of money discouraged younger academics from pursuing such lines of study.

But organizations such as the UC Davis Firearm Violence Research Center, which has been bankrolled by the state and philanthropic organizations, have begun to incubate a new generation of researchers. An infusion of federal funds could mean a renaissance in gun research.