A Concurrent Resolution memorializing the United States Congress to fund the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention research to study firearm violence.

Whereas, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the leading national public health institute of the United States; and

Whereas, The CDC studies a variety of public health threats every year, from infectious diseases to automobile safety; and

Whereas, Firearms violence is one of the top causes of death in the United States for people under the age of 65; and

Whereas, Although the CDC keeps surveillance data on firearm injuries and deaths, it has not funded a comprehensive study aimed at reducing harm from firearms since 2001; and

Whereas, The U.S. Congress included language in the 1996 Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 1997, known as the Dickey Amendment, prohibiting the CDC's appropriations dedicated for injury prevention and control from being used to advocate or promote firearm control, and concurrently reduced the CDC's budget by $2.6 million which was the amount the CDC had invested in firearm injury research the previous year; and

Whereas, The CDC's online guide for grants funded by the agency's Injury Control Research Centers currently includes a section titled Prohibition on Use of CDC Funds for Certain Gun Control Activities, which states that "In addition to the restrictions in the Anti-Lobbying Act, CDC interprets the language in the CDC's Appropriations Act to mean that CDC's funds may not be spent on political action or other activities designed to affect the passage of specific Federal, State, or local legislation intended to restrict or control the purchase or use of firearms"; and

Whereas, More Americans have been killed by firearms since 1968 than have died in all the United States wars combined, beginning with the Revolutionary War; and

Whereas, In recent years the United States has been witness to numerous horrific and preventable firearms-related mass tragedies, which have heightened awareness of the danger that exists when adequate protections are not utilized to ensure that only responsible firearm owners have access to firearms; and

Whereas, After the terrible tragedy of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on December 14, 2012, President Barack Obama released his national plan for addressing firearm violence, including an initiative to "end the freeze on gun violence research," emphasizing that the large number of annual firearm-related homicides and suicides each year clearly is a public health crisis, and asserting that research on firearm violence is not advocacy, but critical to public health research; and

Whereas, In 2014, the CDC budgeted $59 million in 2014 to study coal mining deaths, $10 million to study Lyme disease, $105 million to study the effects of tobacco, and $67 million to study diabetes, and although 32,000 American deaths annually occur by a firearm, no funding is being allocated to the CDC to determine the root cause; and

Whereas, The American Psychological Association endorses ending the freeze on federal firearms violence research, indicating that the ban has significantly hampered psychological scientists' ability to systematically assess the risk of assault and other weapons to the public, and to determine the effectiveness of various violence prevention measures; and

Whereas, The American Medical Association recently called firearm violence "a public health crisis" and called for Congress to permit the CDC to conduct meaningful research to understand the effects of firearms on public health; and

Whereas, It is clear that action by Congress is required to restore funding to identify solutions for firearm violence, enhance public safety, and prevent further deaths by firearms; and

Whereas, In order to protect our nation's children and other citizens from further danger of firearm violence, Congress is urged to reinstate the CDC's ability to conduct research aimed at studying and reducing harm from firearm violence; now, therefore,

Be It Resolved by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

1. The United States Congress is respectfully memorialized to enact legislation to repeal the Dicky Amendment and fully fund the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention research to study firearm violence.

2. Copies of this resolution, as filed with the Secretary of State, shall be transmitted by the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the General Assembly to the President of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, the Majority and Minority Leader of the United States Senate, the Speaker and Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives, and to every member of Congress elected from this State.

STATEMENT

This concurrent resolution memorializes the United States Congress to repeal the Dickey amendment and fund the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to study firearm violence.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) began lobbying Congress in the 1990s to limit the CDC's funding after a CDC funded independent study found that keeping a firearm in the home was strongly associated with an increased risk of homicide.

In 1996, Congress included language in the 1996 Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 1997 stating that "none of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should be used to advocate or promote gun control." Known as the "Dickey Amendment" after its author, former U.S. House Representative Jay Dickey (R-AR), the amendment decreased the CDC's budget by $2.6 million, the amount the CDC had invested in firearm injury research the previous year, and earmarked the funds for prevention of traumatic brain injury.

Since 2001, no funding has been expended for comprehensive studies aimed at reducing harm from firearms.

It is imperative that Congress take action to repeal the amendment and restore adequate funding for research into firearm deaths to enable scientists to study the root causes of firearm violence and prevent future deaths.