杏吧原创

Editorial: 鈥�A shot at the truth about gun violence鈥�

鈥淲E DON鈥橳 benefit from ignorance,鈥� Barack Obama said last week after ending a de facto freeze on US government research into the public-health impact of guns.

With a stroke of his pen, the now re-inaugurated president directed the in Atlanta, Georgia, to scientifically assess existing strategies to reduce gun violence and identify pressing questions that should be answered.

Researchers are optimistic that the president鈥檚 move will revitalise efforts to find ways to reduce the number of homicides (currently around 11,000) and suicides (19,000) committed in the US each year using guns 鈥� work that has long been suppressed by the powerful gun lobby.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 a bold step, for him and the country,鈥� says Garen Wintemute, who heads the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis.

Obama鈥檚 executive order to the CDC is part of a package of at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, last month.

Although the CDC should now be able to resume work on gun violence, its budget must be approved by Congress, which is why Obama has asked Congress to release $10 million for new research. This would be used to probe, for example, whether exposure to violent video games and movies makes people more likely to commit gun crime.

Given its huge death toll, gun violence ought to be near the top of the public health agenda, or so you might assume. So it was for a while, in the early 1990s, when CDC-backed research found, for instance, that .

But in 1996, after lobbying by the , Congress barred the CDC from using its funds to 鈥渁dvocate or promote gun control鈥�. Simultaneously, it slashed $2.6 million from the agency鈥檚 budget 鈥� precisely the CDC鈥檚 annual funding for gun violence research.

CDC officials have since steered away from investigating the ramifications of gun ownership. 鈥淚t鈥檚 incredible that the CDC has been so hampered in doing research on this terrible public health issue,鈥� says David Hemenway of the Injury Control Research Center at Harvard University.

Noting that 鈥渞esearch on gun violence is not advocacy鈥�, Obama鈥檚 plan stresses that the rule Congress passed in the 1990s does not block the CDC from following his directions. It also specifies one initial priority: getting Congress to provide an additional $20 million to expand coverage of the CDC鈥檚 National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) from 18 states to the entire nation. This will aid investigation of whether gun control laws are having the desired effect.

There is no shortage of questions that the CDC could now investigate. Wintemute, for example, wants to examine the value of California鈥檚 efforts to recover firearms from people who bought them legally, but subsequently became ineligible to own a gun because they were convicted of a serious crime. 鈥淲e need to know whether that intervention 鈥� which is expensive and potentially risky 鈥� actually works,鈥� he says.

鈥淲e need to know whether interventions that are expensive and risky actually work鈥�

Another important question surrounds the degree of risk posed by allowing people with a history of alcohol abuse to own guns. That could be studied if the CDC restored questions about gun ownership to its , the main survey the agency uses to investigate how certain behaviours may lead to disease, injury or death.

鈥淭here is no shortage of questions, such as the degree of risk in letting alcohol abusers own guns鈥�

, a leading gun violence researcher at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, hopes the new work will also include projects on suicide prevention.

At present, he notes, there is very little information on where guns used in suicides were obtained 鈥� limiting our ability to suggest controls that might help keep firearms out of the hands of vulnerable people.

The new research, the White House plan says, should include 鈥渋nvestigating the relationship between video games, media images and violence鈥�.

It is well established that playing violent video games causes a short-term rise in aggression 鈥� measured, for example, by testing volunteers鈥� willingness to subject others to unpleasant blasts of sound.

What is unclear is whether prolonged exposure to violent games translates into an increased risk of real-world violence. Getting a definitive answer would mean following the behaviour of thousands of children into adulthood so that any link between gaming and crime can be identified, says , who heads the Center for the Study of Violence at Iowa State University in Ames.

Given the gun lobby鈥檚 in Congress, it is unclear whether the CDC will get additional funds for gun studies, or whether the work will have to compete with existing priorities.

Obama鈥檚 main proposals on gun control similarly hang in the balance, requiring congressional approval. The president wants to impose bans on assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines (see 鈥�Are smart guns the clever option?鈥�), and to close a loophole that allows individuals to sell guns privately without background checks on the buyer.

Bringing in those measures will require new legislation, which will be debated by Congress in the coming weeks and months.