Last four surgeons general call on CDC to resume gun violence studies [View all]
A ban on federal funding for gun violence research was criticized today by a group of four former U.S. surgeons general, including a President George W. Bush appointee.
These former public health leaders called on Congress to end the controversial 20-year-old ban, joining a growing number of doctors and elected officials who object to the 1996 federal budget amendment that essentially prohibits the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from investigating shootings as a public health problem.
The ban, long a sore spot in the medical community, jumped into the national spotlight after the 2014 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. President Obama ordered the CDC to get back to studying the causes of gun violence. But the agency didn't move because of the 1996 budget language that has been reauthorized every year by Congress.
“It is only through research that we can begin to address this menace to our nation’s public health,” wrote the three former surgeons general appointed by a Democrat, Regina Benjamin, Joycelyn Elders and David Satcher.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/04/14/the-last-four-surgeons-general-call-on-cdc-to-resume-gun-violence-studies/
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