Should the CDC be permitted to study gun violence?

[Wakie77]

Currently the CDC is not permitted to study gun violence the way it studies automotive accidents.  This is due to a 1996 budget amendment passed by Congress and pushed by the NRA forbidding such studies.

Would you support overturning that amendment?  Discuss why or why not?

[Mr. Reactionary]

Centers for DISEASE Control should stick to studying diseases. NIOSH is largely a waste of money that could be better spent on real science. Malaria research > useless reports on how kids who accidentally shoot themselves are more likely to die from gun violence than kids who do not.

[Don Vito Corleone]

If, as you say, the CDC studies automotive accidents, I don't see why it would be wrong for them to study gun violence.

[Wakie77]

If, as you say, the CDC studies automotive accidents, I don't see why it would be wrong for them to study gun violence.

https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/motor-vehicle-safety/index.html
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4818a1.htm

Yes, the CDC studies it.  The result has been rational laws and safety measures which drastically reduced injuries and deaths related to automobiles.

[Badger]

If, as you say, the CDC studies automotive accidents, I don't see why it would be wrong for them to study gun violence.

https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/motor-vehicle-safety/index.html
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4818a1.htm

Yes, the CDC studies it.  The result has been rational laws and safety measures which drastically reduced injuries and deaths related to automobiles.

[Cashew]

They had their chance and they blew it.

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http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2015/12/why-we-cant-trust-the-cdc-with-gun-research-000340

Give them a single inch, and they will restart the campaign to have gun owners treated like smokers. Nobody can call them impartial with a straight face.

[Associate Justice PiT]

They had their chance and they blew it.

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http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2015/12/why-we-cant-trust-the-cdc-with-gun-research-000340

Give them a single inch, and they will restart the campaign to have gun owners treated like smokers. Nobody can call them impartial with a straight face.

     One of the things I hate most about the issue of gun control is the ludicrous amounts of advocacy qua research published on both sides of the debate. Finding actual, solid work on the subject is extremely hard to do among the seas of bias.

[darklordoftech]

No, and they shouldn't be able to study smoking, vaping, drinking during the day, drinking as a teenager, dropping out of school, biking without a helmet, playing on a playground, being unsupervised as a child, or having sex as a teenager either.

[AtorBoltox]

No, and they shouldn't be able to study smoking, vaping, drinking during the day, drinking as a teenager, dropping out of school, biking without a helmet, playing on a playground, being unsupervised as a child, or having sex as a teenager either.

What is this garbage? None of these activities are remotely equivalent to gun violence

[darklordoftech]

No, and they shouldn't be able to study smoking, vaping, drinking during the day, drinking as a teenager, dropping out of school, biking without a helmet, playing on a playground, being unsupervised as a child, or having sex as a teenager either.

What is this garbage? None of these activities are remotely equivalent to gun violence

My point is that they shouldn't be able to study anything for which it would serve a moral or political agenda to produce certain results.

[MAINEiac4434]

Centers for DISEASE Control should stick to studying diseases. NIOSH is largely a waste of money that could be better spent on real science. Malaria research > useless reports on how kids who accidentally shoot themselves are more likely to die from gun violence than kids who do not.

America is suffering an epidemic of gun violence. On average, a Mandalay Bay's worth of people kill themselves with a gun every day. Another 25 are killed by someone else with a gun.

[longtimelurker]

Centers for DISEASE Control should stick to studying diseases. NIOSH is largely a waste of money that could be better spent on real science. Malaria research > useless reports on how kids who accidentally shoot themselves are more likely to die from gun violence than kids who do not.

Excuse me, but you don't know what NIOSH does.  I make my living as an environmental scientist working at hazardous waste sites.  NIOSH sets the standards for hard hats, respirators, and numerous other safety equipment.  Maybe you don't think that bullets are harmful, but trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene and the numerous other chlorinated solvents, heavy metals, and hydrocarbons that I've worked around for more than the past 10 years sure are.

[Zioneer]

They had their chance and they blew it.

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http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2015/12/why-we-cant-trust-the-cdc-with-gun-research-000340

Give them a single inch, and they will restart the campaign to have gun owners treated like smokers. Nobody can call them impartial with a straight face.

The US is literally the only country that faces this level of gun deaths.

[136or142]

Preventing the CDC from researching/studying gun violence is right wing political correctness.  

I'm sure there are more technical points that could be made here, and while I realize the CDC isn't a university, all of the arguments presented here against allowing them to study it are the same arguments made by those who the right refers to as 'politically correct' when those 'politically correct' people try and prevent academics from researching/studying certain things.

[pbrower2a]

Preventing the CDC to research/study gun violence is right wing political correctness. 

I'm sure there are more technical points that could be made here, and while I realize the CDC isn't a university, all of the arguments presented here against allowing them to study it are the same arguments made by those who the right refers to as 'politically correct' when those 'politically correct' people try and prevent academics from researching/studying certain things.

So far as I can tell, the solution that the NRA has for gun violence is... even more guns.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Centers for DISEASE Control should stick to studying diseases. NIOSH is largely a waste of money that could be better spent on real science. Malaria research > useless reports on how kids who accidentally shoot themselves are more likely to die from gun violence than kids who do not.

Excuse me, but you don't know what NIOSH does.  I make my living as an environmental scientist working at hazardous waste sites.  NIOSH sets the standards for hard hats, respirators, and numerous other safety equipment.  Maybe you don't think that bullets are harmful, but trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene and the numerous other chlorinated solvents, heavy metals, and hydrocarbons that I've worked around for more than the past 10 years sure are.

EPA/DOL/NIST/OSHA can't do that?

[Mr. Reactionary]

Centers for DISEASE Control should stick to studying diseases. NIOSH is largely a waste of money that could be better spent on real science. Malaria research > useless reports on how kids who accidentally shoot themselves are more likely to die from gun violence than kids who do not.

America is suffering an epidemic of gun violence. On average, a Mandalay Bay's worth of people kill themselves with a gun every day. Another 25 are killed by someone else with a gun.

Epidemic. Noun. A widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time.

Gun violence is not a disease. CDC should stick to infectious diseases.

[7,052,770]

No, and they shouldn't be able to study smoking, vaping, drinking during the day, drinking as a teenager, dropping out of school, biking without a helmet, playing on a playground, being unsupervised as a child, or having sex as a teenager either.

What is this garbage? None of these activities are remotely equivalent to gun violence

My point is that they shouldn't be able to study anything for which it would serve a moral or political agenda to produce certain results.

So then they shouldn't be able to study anything then.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

No, and they shouldn't be able to study smoking, vaping, drinking during the day, drinking as a teenager, dropping out of school, biking without a helmet, playing on a playground, being unsupervised as a child, or having sex as a teenager either.

They should absolutely study vaping. Sh#t's gotta go.

[darklordoftech]

No, and they shouldn't be able to study smoking, vaping, drinking during the day, drinking as a teenager, dropping out of school, biking without a helmet, playing on a playground, being unsupervised as a child, or having sex as a teenager either.

What is this garbage? None of these activities are remotely equivalent to gun violence

My point is that they shouldn't be able to study anything for which it would serve a moral or political agenda to produce certain results.

So then they shouldn't be able to study anything then.

There's plenty of things for them to study where there wouldn't be such an agenda. For example, chicken pox.

[darklordoftech]

No, and they shouldn't be able to study smoking, vaping, drinking during the day, drinking as a teenager, dropping out of school, biking without a helmet, playing on a playground, being unsupervised as a child, or having sex as a teenager either.

They should absolutely study vaping. Sh#t's gotta go.

I'd rather the people who want to incarcerate teenage vapers for destroying their developing brains with nicotine not have "science" on their side.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

No, and they shouldn't be able to study smoking, vaping, drinking during the day, drinking as a teenager, dropping out of school, biking without a helmet, playing on a playground, being unsupervised as a child, or having sex as a teenager either.

They should absolutely study vaping. Sh#t's gotta go.

I'd rather the people who want to incarcerate teenage vapers for destroying their developing brains with nicotine not have "science" on their side.

Omelette, eggs, etc.

[pbrower2a]

NOVA once had a program in which it treated murder (much of it committed with firearms) and found murder strongly correlating to poverty and low levels of formal education.  Even regional and ethnic differences (South versus New England, black versus white)  reduced the differences to poverty and formal education.

 

[longtimelurker]

Centers for DISEASE Control should stick to studying diseases. NIOSH is largely a waste of money that could be better spent on real science. Malaria research > useless reports on how kids who accidentally shoot themselves are more likely to die from gun violence than kids who do not.

Excuse me, but you don't know what NIOSH does.  I make my living as an environmental scientist working at hazardous waste sites.  NIOSH sets the standards for hard hats, respirators, and numerous other safety equipment.  Maybe you don't think that bullets are harmful, but trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene and the numerous other chlorinated solvents, heavy metals, and hydrocarbons that I've worked around for more than the past 10 years sure are.

EPA/DOL/NIST/OSHA can't do that?

These contaminants cause diseases, most notably cancer.  The CDC is the most logical agency to make and enforce these regulations.

[longtimelurker]

Centers for DISEASE Control should stick to studying diseases. NIOSH is largely a waste of money that could be better spent on real science. Malaria research > useless reports on how kids who accidentally shoot themselves are more likely to die from gun violence than kids who do not.

America is suffering an epidemic of gun violence. On average, a Mandalay Bay's worth of people kill themselves with a gun every day. Another 25 are killed by someone else with a gun.

Epidemic. Noun. A widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time.

Gun violence is not a disease. CDC should stick to infectious diseases.

Oxford English Dictionary:

1.1. A sudden, widespread occurrence of an undesirable phenomenon.
‘an epidemic of violent crime’

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/epidemic