How COngress and The NRA Play God With Science - New England Patriots Forums

Mrs.PatsFanInVa · 12-26-2012, 10:36 AM

Ever wonder why there are no governmental medical or public health studies on whether easy access to firearms mitigates or amplifies both the likelihood and consequences of these acts? Ever wonder why there have been no studies on the association between purchase of a handgun and the subsequent risk of homicide or suicide since the 1990s?

Wonder no longer.

Both The CDC and all of the Department of Health and Human Services agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, were told not to...not just TOLD not to COngressionally ordered not to.

All courtesy of the NRA by way of pro-gun members of Congress.

Quote:

In 1996, pro-gun members of Congress mounted an all-out effort to eliminate the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Although they failed to defund the center, the House of Representatives removed $2.6 million from the CDC's budget—precisely the amount the agency had spent on firearm injury research the previous year. Funding was restored in joint conference committee, but the money was earmarked for traumatic brain injury. The effect was sharply reduced support for firearm injury research.

To ensure that the CDC and its grantees got the message, the following language was added to the final appropriation: “none of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be used to advocate or promote gun control.”

When other agencies funded high-quality research, similar action was taken. In 2009, Branas et al published the results of a case-control study that examined whether carrying a gun increases or decreases the risk of firearm assault. In contrast to earlier research, this particular study was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Two years later, Congress extended the restrictive language it had previously applied to the CDC to all Department of Health and Human Services agencies, including the National Institutes of Health.

Even the US military has had it's hands tied when it comes to discussing gun violence.

Quote:

The US military is grappling with an increase in suicides within its ranks. Earlier this month, an article by 2 retired generals—a former chief and a vice chief of staff of the US Army— asked Congress to lift a little-noticed provision in the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act that prevents military commanders and noncommissioned officers from being able to talk to service members about their private weapons, even in cases in which a leader believes that a service member may be suicidal.

Florida and 7 other states are trying to restrict private doctors from discussing or recording information about firearm safety with a patient.

Quote:

In 2011, Florida's legislature passed and Governor Scott signed HB 155, which subjects the state's health care practitioners to possible sanctions, including loss of license, if they discuss or record information about firearm safety that a medical board later determines was not “relevant” or was “unnecessarily harassing.” A US district judge has since issued a preliminary injunction to block enforcement of this law, but the matter is still in litigation. Similar bills have been proposed in 7 other states.

JAMA Network | JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association | Silencing the Science on Gun ResearchSilencing the Science on Gun Research

***DarrylS*** · 12-26-2012, 10:50 AM

The NRA somehow got the gun manufacturers in 2005 to be exempt from any civil liability due to their actions or products..

The right is concerned about how David Gregory showed a high speed clip to LaPierre...

They want Piers Morgan to be deported, because he is asking "hard" questions about guns..

Today's an article in the WAPO...

ATF, charged with regulating guns, lacks resources and leadership - Washington Post

Quote:

The gun lobby, concerned about government regulation of firearms ownership, has taken steps to limit the resources available to ATF and to prevent the agency from having a strong leader, according to former and current ATF officials.

For decades, the National Rifle Association has lobbied successfully to block all attempts to computerize records of gun sales, arguing against any kind of national registry of firearms ownership. And despite the growth of the gun industry and the nation’s population, ATF has fewer agents today than it did nearly four decades ago: fewer than 2,500.

What is interesting is that this gun lobby wants to have a registry for mentally ill people... but, not for gun ownership. Something about infringing on someone's rights or other such poppy****.

DocHoliday · 12-26-2012, 11:36 AM

If this isn't the most transparent lobby of all time I don't know what is.