Citation

Prina LL. Health Aff. (Hope) 2018; 37(5): 821-822.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Project HOPE - The People-to-People Health Foundation)

DOI

10.1377/hlthaff.2018.0371

PMID

29733718

Abstract

For more than twenty years, “federal law has effectively halted” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) ability to do research on the subject of gun violence, a March 1, 2018, Wall Street Journal article reminds readers. But “Democrats and some centrist Republicans [have been] pushing to eliminate a provision” known as the Dickey Amendment, which in past spending bills has prohibited the agency from using funds to advocate for or promote gun control, reporter Kristina Peterson and colleagues explain. The “ambiguous” language “didn’t expressly prevent scientific research,” but because of scrutiny, “the CDC has sharply curbed” its research in this area.

Agency instructions accompanying the government spending bill signed into law by President Donald Trump in March 2018 contain a sentence noting that the CDC has the authority to research the causes of gun violence, Nell Greenfieldboyce says in NPR’s online “Shots.” (In 2013 the title of a Chronicle of Philanthropy op-ed by the Joyce Foundation’s president, Ellen Alberding, was “Philanthropy Needs to Do More to Back Research about Gun Violence.”)

The CDC considers violence “a serious public health problem,” according to its website. For one thing, many survivors of violence “suffer physical, mental, and/or emotional health problems” throughout the remainder of their lives. Thus, the agency is “committed to stopping violence before it begins.” It has several funded programs and initiatives on various forms of violence. Its website also describes how to use a four-step public health approach to prevent violence. Such a model first defines and monitors the problem, then identifies risk factors and protective factors, next develops and tests prevention strategies, and finally ensures “widespread adoption” of effective programs ...

Language: en

Keywords

Gun Violence; Health Philanthropy; Public Health; Violence Prevention