Mass shootings and police shootings have spurred calls for authorities to take action to reduce the violence. But policymakers may be stymied by the dearth of public health research into both gun violence and deaths that involve the police. One big obstacle: congressional restrictions on funding of such research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Right now, the CDC studies all kinds of violence. There's a program on child abuse and youth violence, and the public health agency collects data on suicides and sexual assaults.
But there are some glaring research gaps. The CDC doesn't systematically collect data on deaths at the hands of law enforcement, and there's actually a law that effectively stops it from doing research on gun violence.
The authorization doesn't explicitly forbid research; rather, it says that no funds may be used "to advocate or promote gun control." But scientists got the message that firearms-related research was politically fraught.
[For more of this story, written by Alison Kodjak, go to http://www.npr.org/sections/he...arch-on-gun-violence]
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