In the wake of Sunday’s horrific event that became known as America’s deadliest mass shooting to date, the American Medical Association is taking action. The AMA says that it will adopt a new policy, categorizing gun violence in the U.S. as “a public health crisis.”
With this new classification, the AMA plans to lobby Congress actively to overturn 20-year-old legislation that blocks research on gun violence by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. AMA President Steven Stack said in a statement that,
“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.”
The AMA represents the largest organization for doctors in the U.S., and has supported gun control since the 1980s; more recently in 2013. The Association labeled uncontrolled gun ownership and use of firearms as “a serious threat to public health,” because “the Weapons are one of the leading causes of intentional and unintentional injuries and deaths.”
In 1996 the National Rifle Association (NRA) successfully lobbied Congress to ban any federal research on gun violence that people might interpret as an endorsement for gun control. Ironically the author of the legislation, Jay Dickey (R-AR) confessed to NPR in October that he regrets that his law had unintended consequences:
“[It] wasn’t necessary that all research stop. It just couldn’t be the collection of data so that they can advocate gun control. That’s all we were talking about. But for some reason, it just stopped altogether.”
Oh, gee. The researched stopped altogether when Dickey and his NRA ball sacks made any scientific conclusions that offend the gun lobby illegal. Gosh, who would have thunk it, eh?
In 2013, President Obama issued an executive order directing the CDC to resume research “addressing the causes of gun violence…subject to the availability of appropriations.”
However, a CDC spokesperson told the Washington Post that their “resources are very limited,” and the agency has yet to take action.
And the AMA isn’t alone. The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a recent policy statement saying that the ’96 legislation has had “a chilling effect and resulted in a dearth of research on this critical topic.”
Hopefully, now that the AMA’s fully committed to bringing about positive change in U.S. gun policy, they may serve as a much-needed counterbalance to the NRA’s dark influence in Washington.
Featured image mashup via Magic-emoji, YouTube Screengrab, and The Liberty Beacon.
