Every year more than 10,000 Americans are killed by a firearm in a homicide and more than 20,000 Americans take their own lives with a firearm. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the national health agency of the United States, has been prevented from researching firearm-related deaths and injuries since Congress removed $2.6 billion from the CDC's budget in a 1997.
In the past the CDC has successfully improved the lives of all Americans by researching the effects of lead poisoning and car accidents, providing our government with the information necessary to mitigate these risks through well-informed legislation.
We implore the US Congress to explicitly grant the CDC the authority to research gun violence in order to build a foundation with which to save American lives.