Editor:
Do more guns always mean more violence? We’ll never know, thanks to the National Rifle Association.
The annual cost of gun violence in America exceeds $229 billion. But that’s just a best guess, again, thanks to the NRA and its killing of federal funding for gun violence research.
Prior to 1996, the Center for Disease Control funded research into the causes of firearm-related deaths.
After a series of articles finding that increased prevalence of guns lead to increased incidents of gun violence, congressional Republicans at the behest of the NRA removed all federal funding for research into gun deaths. Boom.
In 2003 they doubled down by including the words “in whole or in part.” Then, in 2012, they expanded the restriction to all Health and Human Services agencies.
Best Americans remain ignorant of guns, of earth science, alternative energy – of a whole slew of things that gets in their way of raping our country for their gain.
President Obama requested $10 million for the CDC’s gun violence research in his last two budgets. So did Rep. Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Markey (D-Mass.).
Both times the Republican-controlled House of Representatives said no.
I guess the GOP stands with Joe the Plumber: “Your dead kids don’t trump my constitutional rights.”
But no one is asking for the right to bear arms to be completely banned from the American public… only for it to be “well-regulated,” as the Constitution clearly states it is allowed to be.
Did you know that more Americans have died from guns in the United States since 1968 than on battlefields of all the wars in American history? It’s true.
Diane Daiute
Sweet Home