For decades the gun lobby has been able to successfully thwart any attempts at letting government agencies research gun violence. As idiotic as that sounds, there’s a reason why so much money was spent on lobbyists—it’s worth the money for groups like the NRA to fight education on gun violence. But times have changed. A big part of why Americans voted for Democratic candidates this past November was the promise that some sensible legislation would make its way forward. Last year, the Democratic Congress was able to get language into an omnibus bill that would allow the CDC to conduct research on gun violence, but no funds were allocated. This year, democratic reps like Connecticut’s Rep. Rosa DeLauro—now on the House Appropriations committee—were able to secure $50 million for gun research.
On Wednesday, the Democratic-led House voted to fund gun violence research for the first time. Leading up to the vote, Rep. DeLauro was optimistic and energized, telling the CT Mirror that the committee, “focused our efforts on programs that had been starved. I have been fighting for money for these programs for so long.” The battle against these kinds of appropriations for research into violence has been one-sided for years, with funding for research getting compromised out of budgets. And for good reason. Every day there are new studies that suggest that gun laws actually help to curb some of the violence, whether it is self-inflicted, criminal in the intent, or accidental. Getting more robust investigations into gun violence would likely provide more and more evidence supporting common sense gun safety laws.