Res. No. 340

Resolution calling on the federal government to invest at least $100 million in gun violence research through the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

By Council Members Menin, Hanks, Schulman, the Public Advocate (Mr. Williams), Mealy, Restler, Joseph, Hudson, Farías, Hanif and Abreu

Whereas, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was founded in 1942 as agency for malaria control in war areas; and

Whereas, The CDC protects the nation’s health by preventing and controlling disease, injury, and disability; and

Whereas, The National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) of the CDC was created in 1992 after a series of government reports identified injury as one of the most important public health problems facing the nation; and

Whereas, In 1996 the federal government omnibus spending bill was passed and included a rider provision, named the Dickey Amendment after Congress Member Jay Dickey, which at the behest of the National Rifle Association (NRA) mandated that none of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at CDC be used to advocate or promote gun control; and

Whereas, As a result of the Dickey Amendment, virtually no funding for government research of gun control was appropriated to CDC for more than two decades; and

Whereas, According to The Science of Gun Policy: A Critical Synthesis of Research Evidence on the effects of Gun Policies in the United States and The Dickey Amendment on Federal Funding for Research on Gun Violence: A Legal Dissection, CDC funding of gun violence research declined by 96 percent and academic publications addressing gun violence declined 64 percent between 1998 and 2012; and

Whereas, According to CDC mortality statistics from 2004-2014, gun violence killed approximately as many individuals as sepsis, however, funding for gun violence research was about 0.7 percent of that for sepsis; and

Whereas, According to Journal of the American Medical Association, gun violence research was the least researched cause of death and the second least funded cause of death after falls; and

Whereas, According to the New England Journal of Medicine, years of research and the application of effective policies, car related deaths went from the leading cause of death for children to being replaced by guns as recent as 2020; and

                      Whereas, According to CDC Wonder Online Database from 2018-2020, Black children in the United States are three times more likely to die from gun violence than the overall U.S. population, while according to reports, homicide rates from firearms from 2019 predominantly Black countries such as Senegal, Ghana, and Nigeria have significantly lower overall gun homicides than the U.S.; and

                     Whereas, Reports indicate in 2018 Congress clarified the law to allow for gun violence research and subsequently the Fiscal Year 2020 budget earmarked $25 million in funding for CDC and the National Health Institute (NIH) for such research; and

Whereas, According to CDC Fast Facts, 2020, there were 45,222 firearm related deaths in the United States, approximately 124 deaths a day; and

Whereas, 40,000 non gun related death causes received between 25 to 50 million dollars in funding; and

Whereas, Funding for gun violence research should be in the hundreds of millions based on dollars spent per death and considering 20 years of little to no funding; and

Whereas, Funding the CDC’s research into gun violence will allow them to provide data to inform action, conduct research and apply scientific principles to identify effective solutions, and promote collaboration across multiple sectors to address the problem of firearm violence and keep people safe and healthy; now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York calls on the federal government to invest at least $100 million in gun violence research through the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

CMB

LS #9663

9/28/22