AMA calls on Congress to lift ban on gun violence research
The American Medical Association’s delegates have passed a resolution labeling gun violence as “a public health crisis,” promising to lobby Congress to end a 20-year-old ban on federallyfunded gun violence research.
Since 1996, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been blocked from using its appropriations for any research involving gun violence through an attachment to its budget known as the Dickey Amendment, which specifically states the no CDC funds “may be used to advocate or promote gun control."
In the wake of the shooting in Orlando which left 49 people dead, the AMA’s delegates endorsed a proposal to remove that restriction.
"Even as America faces a crisis unrivaled in any other developed country, the Congress prohibits the CDC from conducting the very research that would help us understand the problems associated with gun violence and determine how to reduce the high rate of firearm-related deaths and injuries,” AMA President Steven J. Stack, MD, said in a statement. “An epidemiological analysis of gun violence is vital so physicians and other health providers, law enforcement and society at large may be able to prevent injury, death and other harms to society resulting from firearms."
Before voting on the resolution, the AMA delegates noted there had been six shooting deaths in Chicago while the association had been holding its annual meeting in the city.
There has been extra pressure from Democrats to remove the restriction in recent years. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the no. 2 Democrat in the Senate, had called for a congressional hearing earlier this year to discuss ending the funding ban.
“We know we have traffic accidents that lead to injuries and death, so we try to design cars safer,” Durbin said to the Illinois Radio Network in January 2016. “We try to figure out ways to keep drunk drivers off the road. We’re not trying take anybody’s car away, we’re just saying let’s find ways to do this in a safe fashion.”
Physicians organizations, including the American Academy of Family Physicians, had spoken out in support of the AMA resolution before it was passed.
John joined TriMed in 2016, focusing on healthcare policy and regulation. After graduating from Columbia College Chicago, he worked at FM News Chicago and Rivet News Radio, and worked on the state government and politics beat for the Illinois Radio Network. Outside of work, you may find him adding to his never-ending graphic novel collection.