Senators Request $50 Million for Gun Violence Research
Multiple U.S. Senators called on leaders of the Appropriations Committee to include $50 million in funding for gun violence prevention research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In a letter, the Senators point to the string of mass shootings that have occurred since they last wrote to urge funding for "vital research."
"In 2017 - the year for which we have the most recent, complete data - we lost nearly 40,000 lives due to gun violence. It was the larges yearly number of fatalities on record since at least 1968 and the third consecutive year that the rate of firearm deaths increased in the United States," says the letter.
The Senators cited the El Paso and Dayton mass shootings that left twenty-nine people dead and more than fifty wounded, as well as the recent mass shootings that occurred in California. "We should embrace our responsibility to enact evidence-based solutions to the epidemic of gun violence. While limited research exists, policymakers, healthcare practitioners and researchers lack comprehensive scientific information about the causes and characteristics of gun violence, which could inform the development of strategies to thwart future tragedies," said the Senators.
In addition, the Senators asked the Appropriations Committee to recognize gun violence as a public heath issue.
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