By Alicia Ault, JAMA Network, August 4, 2021
Depending on who you ask, the end of a 2-decade dry spell in federal funding for gun violence research is a windfall or a pittance. Either way, experts in the field say that renewed funding is especially urgent now, as the US heads into a second year of record firearm-related violence.
By late July, the Gun Violence Archive reported 25 370 US firearm deaths in 2021, putting the year on track to surpass last year’s 43 559 deaths. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data showed that 39 707 people lost their lives to gun violence in 2019. It was the third consecutive year in which US gun violence deaths approached 40 000 and the end of a decade in which the death rate from gun violence increased by 17%, from 10.1 to 11.9 deaths per 100 000 population. The rate has remained above 11 per 100 000 population since 2015.
Although the CDC gathers firearm mortality data, its gun violence research had largely been dormant since 1996 when the Dickey Amendment prohibited the agency from using its injury prevention funding “to advocate or promote gun control.” The amendment technically didn’t prohibit gun violence research, but the chill was numbing.
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