Do you like the idea of tax dollars being used for research to support gun control?
Two Democrats introduced legislation last week for that very purpose.
The NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action reported:
Legislation Proposes $60 Million for Anti-Gun ResearchOn Monday, NRA F-rated Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) introduced legislation to authorize the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to give $60 million of the taxpayers’ money to anti-gun activists over the next six years, to conduct “research” promoting gun control. The two longtime anti-gun legislators say that their bill is necessary for two reasons, both of which are hokum:First, they say, Congress in 1996 “almost halted entirely” all funding of gun control research, the operative word being “almost.” In 1996, Congress did stop the CDC from funneling millions of the taxpayers’ dollars to anti-gunners to conduct “research”–pitiful by academic standards–designed from the get-go to promote a political agenda against a constitutionally-protected right.However, it didn’t shut off the spigot through which millions of dollars flow to the same anti-gunners from leftwing philanthropic foundations. For example, the Joyce Foundation alone has given several million dollars to a variety of anti-gun groups and individuals every year since 1996.Second, Markey and Maloney say, anti-gun research is necessary to stop the “gun violence . . . epidemic,” which Maloney implies is increasing. Words have meaning, however. An epidemic is a sudden and severe outbreak of an infectious disease throughout a community, and “gun violence” isn’t a disease, it’s not widespread, it doesn’t affect all segments of the population equally, and it’s been decreasing, not increasing.
The left has had little success with the issue of gun control. Using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looks like a backdoor attempt to advance their agenda, but it isn’t surprising.
In an interview with National Public Radio in April, our new surgeon general Vivek Murthy seemed to suggest that gun violence is a public health issue:
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy On Gun Control, Vaccines And ScienceSIMON: Dr. Murthy, your confirmation was held up in Congress after you had tweeted – I believe this is a quote – “guns are a health care issue.” What did you mean by that, more gun control laws, what?MURTHY: Here’s what I would say – and here’s what I meant when I wrote that tweet – violence of all kinds is a public health issue. When you have large numbers of people dying from preventable causes, that’s a health care issue. That’s a public health issue. That’s what I said. That’s, in fact, what C. Everett Koop said when he was Surgeon General, and that’s what the leading medical and nursing organizations have said for many years. I want to find a way that we can reduce violence in America. And I think you wouldn’t be hard-pressed to find parents or families of victims or health care practitioners who would disagree.SIMON: Do I properly note any significance to the fact that you don’t seem to be calling for more gun control laws?MURTHY: Well, what I’m calling for is for more common sense. We may see various issues around violence as highly politicized because of how they’re covered or how they’re spoken about in public settings. These problems that we face are not problems that one party or one sector can solve on their own. But it’s going to take real partnership and working together across the community that will help us address the great health care challenges that our country is facing.
Can you even imagine how the framers of the Constitution would react to this discussion?
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