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by CompanionCuuube 2486 days ago
> Congress forbids the federal health research bodies (NIH, CDC, etc.) from funding or studying research into those effects.

That's not actually true. The limitations set in the Dickey amendment were only regarding the use of funding to the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control for the purpose of advocating gun control.
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jadell 2486 days ago
Dickey covers the CDC and the NIH (as of 2011). And the common interpretation of that amendment[0] is that it is unclear where the line exists between research conclusions and advocating for gun-control.

The CDC's entire purpose is to come up with mitigation plans for public health issues. If a study finds that increased rates of gun ownership alone causes an increase in gun violence, what conclusions would the CDC be allowed to come to, and what possible mitigation could they recommend that couldn't be viewed as advocating for gun control?

Their position is to avoid all such research entirely. The letter of the law seems to speak only to funding, but its effect is to shut down all research into the issue. Which, of course, was the intended effect from the beginning.

[0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5993413/#__sec2...

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CompanionCuuube 2486 days ago
> If a study finds that increased rates of gun ownership alone causes an increase in gun violence

If a study finds that increased rates of gun ownership when isolated from the list of variables that they have controlled for, is linked by correlation to an increase in gun violence then why do you believe publishing that correlation is supportive of gun control?

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jadell 2486 days ago
It doesn't matter what I believe. It matters how the NRA, those in Congress and the administration who are anti-gun-control will spin those findings.

I strongly doubt such a conclusion would pass by unchallenged. If I had to guess, it would probably lead to letting go at least the head investigators of that study, and at most, replacing the head of the CDC.

A study with a conclusion like that was what lead to the Dickey amendment in the first place.

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CompanionCuuube 2486 days ago
I would be more concerned about those in Congress who are pro gun control would spin those findings to push for gun control.

It's not a problematic conclusion because a correlation isn't causation. There is a lot more to study and frankly just going direct from that kind of correlation to gun control is intellectually lazy.

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