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Do we want the answer or not?

BY Dave Ross  on January 17, 2013 @ 6:33 am (Updated: 6:47 am - 1/17/13 )

This was a strange thing to hear the president say Wednesday: "And while year after year, even those who oppose modest gun safety measures have threatened to de-fund scientific or medical research into the causes of gun violence - I will direct the Centers for Disease Control to go ahead and study the best ways to reduce it."

I didn't realize that the gun lobby had worked to cut government funding for research into gun violence. That seems odd. That would be like car companies trying to prohibit research on air bags.

Yet, it turns out that in 1997, Congress imposed a moratorium that forbid the CDC to spend any federal money on research that could be used to "advocate or promote gun control." Because the gun lobby considered these studies propaganda. Even though many gun injuries occur in the families of gun owners - who the gun lobby is supposed to be protecting.

And here's another weird thing, I found that about the same number of Americans die in traffic accidents as by gunfire every year - a little over 30,000. But the number of traffic deaths has been dropping steadily - even as driving has increased - thanks to a lot of government-sponsored safety research.

There was also a dramatic decrease in gun-related deaths too, between 1994 and 1999, when the Brady Bill imposed a five day waiting period on gun purchases. But in 1999, when the waiting period was replaced with an instant background check, the number started creeping up again.

It would be interesting to find out if there's a link. But it was during that same period, Congress cut off the funding for gun research. I guess when you don't want to hear the answer, one solution is to make sure you don't ask the question.

Dave Ross, KIRO Radio Talk Show Host
Dave Ross is co-host of The Ross & Burbank Show on KIRO Radio (weekdays 9-Noon) and never too far from the spotlight.
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  • Paul Kersey wrote...
    Do you want the truth or not? You won't get it from junk studies.
    January 17, 2013 6:35 am
    "In the 1980s, the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) decided guns were a “public health” issue and began funding more and more research on guns and gun control. Some of what was produced was valuable social science, but a great deal was “junk” science, patently designed to create prohibitionist talking points. Those involved were not shy about discussing their gun-ban goals.

    Dr. Mark Rosenberg, who was then director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the CDC, explained his aim was to make the public see firearms as “dirty, deadly—and banned.” (Quoted in William Raspberry, “Sick People With Guns,” The Washington Post, Oct. 19, 1994.) A newspaper article on two other leading anti-gun propagandists, Dr. Katherine Christoffel and Dr. Robert Tanz of the Children’s Hospital in Chicago, explained their “plan to do to handguns what their profession has done to cigarettes … turn gun ownership from a personal-choice issue to a repulsive, anti-social health hazard.” (Harold Henderson, “Policy: Guns ‘n Poses,” Chicago Reader, Dec. 16, 1994.)

    Many of the propaganda articles were widely disseminated by a credulous media eager to tout supposedly scientific proof that guns were bad. The most popular of these articles was built around a one-sentence factoid that asserted the dangers of guns far outweighed the protective benefits."

    read more: http://www.nrapublications.org/index.php/9485/how-your-tax-dollars-demonize-your-guns/

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  • William Lawn wrote...
    Junk Science
    January 17, 2013 6:50 am
    equals results you don't agree with.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • ron prevost wrote...
    And if 'results' support your pre-conceived notions ???????????
    January 17, 2013 7:01 am
    than the study must be true science ???????????
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • logical open mind wrote...
    shame on Dave r for including suicide in his 30,000 number. Suicide is voluntary.
    January 17, 2013 9:18 am
    Also not a mention of gang murder by gun numbers. Shame on the liberal bias of Dave Ross
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • mpgunner wrote...
    What a stupid academic perspective
    January 17, 2013 6:44 am
    Dave, There have been plenty of studies but why don't you simple look at the data (you use to do that but then put your head in the sand). Gangs are the cause of over half of the deaths. I don't hear you talk about that and your silly "hip" president doesn't address that. Obama's gun stunt yesterday was just that - a stunt.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • SeattleNative wrote...
    Actually, mpgunner...
    January 17, 2013 8:23 am
    per the CDC, 59-percent of all gun related deaths in the US are self-inflicted (suicide).

    So I guess maybe we should ban barbiturates, opiates, bridges, tall buildings, razor blades, rope, deep bodies of water, electricity...

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Fuego wrote...
    Dave, stretch your brain and not the facts
    January 17, 2013 6:45 am
    Trying to connect auto deaths with gun violence requires the flexibility of Gumby. How many gun deaths are due to suicide and criminal behavior? Wouldn't you agree that suicide in any form is related to mental health? Get real and quit trying to connect dots that aren't there.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • mnpat wrote...
    "I guess when you don't want to hear the answer"
    January 17, 2013 6:47 am
    As Mr. Nicholson would say...."You can't handle the truth"...........not really a strong point with liberals, you fou folks just kinda make up the truth as you go......brought to you by my Freddy Meyer bottled water.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • ron prevost wrote...
    CDC + Center for DISEASE Control................
    January 17, 2013 6:48 am
    While I know there has been a tendency over the past 50 years or so to label almost everything a 'disease', I've got to ask if the CDC also studies road rage and traffic accidents. ..... Yes, there is the link to mental disorders, but violence expresses itself as violence in WHATEVER form. Certainly not specifically guns. And not even in most cases guns.

    Let the CDC study violence and mental disorders - OK - but gun use by the mentally ill is only a part - certainly not a specific 'disease'. ... To single out guns just may be what the NRA objects to.

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  • William Lawn wrote...
    Here you go, Mr. ron
    January 17, 2013 6:59 am
    http://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • ron prevost wrote...
    Thanks, Lawn
    January 17, 2013 7:06 am
    Just make me lose respect for the CDC even more. .... Tell me, now. Does the CDC also study earthquakes ?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Forrest wrote...
    Well Dave, it's a lot like religion...
    January 17, 2013 7:00 am
    Ignore science and facts. Believe in BS.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Shplunker wrote...
    Joke!
    January 17, 2013 7:03 am
    Never let the facts get in the way of a good touchy-feely press opportunity! Approx. 30,000 gun deaths per year. About 19,000 are suicide. About 13,000 are gang-related.(just take a look at how gun control is working in Chicago!) The phony, hipster, non-presidential posturing is going to do absolutely nothing, to prevent ANYTHING. Figure out a way to stop the "hat-to-the-side"..."Pants on the ground" group, and maybe you'll accomplish something.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • William Lawn wrote...
    Shplunker
    January 17, 2013 7:33 am
    You're projecting your racism again.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • SeattleNative wrote...
    What racism?
    January 17, 2013 8:27 am
    You're the one bringing race into Shplunker's post.

    So who does that make the racist???

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • maplefish wrote...
    Always the cheapest shot from the left
    January 17, 2013 8:38 am
    The race card....Lawn, that was lame. You're a liberal chickenshit.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Shplunker wrote...
    lawnpoo..
    January 17, 2013 12:24 pm
    You're an idiot, and as those here have said, most likely the racist. The facts are the facts. Gangs...who account for at least 13,000 of the so-called "assault weapons" murders in our country...come in all races.Perhaps the fact that young black men are killing young black men at a higher rate than other races may be whats causing you to think that way?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • cloey wrote...
    Obama's omission
    January 17, 2013 7:07 am
    Yesterday dear leader said since Newtown there have been 900 gun deaths. Guess what, 700 were suicides!!! It's really not the guns, it's the crazy people. Build more asylums and I'll pay more taxes.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Paul Kersey wrote...
    the propagandists are hitting it hard
    January 17, 2013 7:12 am
    Their leader has given them the green light to attack the constitution, the pesky document standing in their way. Bob Schieffer says Obama taking on the NRA is just like defeating the Nazis.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Rick W7PSK wrote...
    Here is a quote I bet Dave Agrees with
    January 17, 2013 7:16 am
    The state must declare the children to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation

    Admit it dave, you long for a socialist/communist state

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  • Paul Kersey wrote...
    It's for the children
    January 17, 2013 7:35 am
    "This new Reich will give its youth to no one, but will itself take youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing."
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • AceBass wrote...
    Indeed
    January 17, 2013 9:20 am
    yep. and how many German children died as a result of the 3rd Reich? Not to mention all the men women and children of the allied forces, or Russia. Many tens of millions.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
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