Dickey Amendment (1996)

Not to be confused with Dickey-Wicker Amendment.

In United States politics, the Dickey Amendment is a provision first inserted as a rider into the 1996 federal government omnibus spending bill which mandated that “none of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) may be used to advocate or promote gun control.” In the same spending bill, Congress earmarked $2.6 million from the CDC's budget, the exact amount that had previously been allocated to the agency for firearms research the previous year, for traumatic brain injury-related research.[1] The amendment is named after its author Jay Dickey, a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Arkansas.[1] The amendment was introduced as a result of lobbying by the National Rifle Association in response to a 1993 study by Arthur Kellermann that found that guns in the home were associated with an increased risk of homicide in the home.[1][2] Mark L. Rosenberg, the former director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, has described this amendment as "a shot fired across the bow" at CDC researchers who wanted to research gun violence.[3] Many commentators have described this amendment as a "ban" on gun violence research by the CDC.[4] In a 2012 op-ed, Dickey and Rosenberg argued that the CDC should be able to research gun violence,[5] and Dickey has since said that he regrets his role in stopping the CDC from researching the subject.[6]

Attempts to remove the amendment

In 2013, President Barack Obama directed the CDC to research gun violence, but as of January 2015, they had still not done so, due to difficulty securing the necessary funding.[4] That month, a spokeswoman for the agency, Courtney Lenard, told the Washington Post that “It is possible for us to conduct firearm-related research within the context of our efforts to address youth violence, domestic violence, sexual violence, and suicide. But our resources are very limited.”[2] In October 2015, 110 members of Congress, all of whom were Democrats, signed a letter calling on Congress to reject the amendment.[7] In December 2015, despite Nancy Pelosi's efforts to have the Dickey amendment removed from the spending bill for the following year, Congress passed this bill with the amendment still in it.[8]

Reaction from academic organizations

In response to this amendment being adopted, the American Psychological Association adopted a resolution condemning it.[1] In December 2015, multiple medical organizations, including Doctors for America, the American College of Preventive Medicine, and the American Academy of Pediatrics, called on Congress to repeal the amendment.[2] That same month, the American Association for the Advancement of Science also called for an end to this amendment.[9]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Jamieson, Christine (February 2013). "Gun violence research: History of the federal funding freeze". American Psychological Association. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 Schumaker, Erin (7 December 2015). "Why The Ban On Gun Violence Research Is A Public Health Issue". Huffington Post. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  3. ↑ Frankel, Todd C. (30 December 2015). "Their 1996 clash shaped the gun debate for years. Now they want to reshape it.". Washington Post. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  4. 1 2 Fessenden, Marissa (13 July 2015). "Why So Few Scientists Are Studying the Causes of Gun Violence". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  5. ↑ Dickey, Jay (27 July 2012). "We won’t know the cause of gun violence until we look for it". Washington Post. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  6. ↑ Diamond, Jeremy (2 December 2015). "Former GOP congressman flips on support for gun violence research". CNN. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  7. ↑ Frankel, Todd C. (28 October 2015). "110 members of Congress plead for ending ban on CDC gun research". Washington Post. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  8. ↑ Ferris, Sarah (16 December 2015). "House Dems lose fight to nix gun research ban in budget". The Hill. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  9. ↑ Kodjak, Alison (8 December 2015). "Congress Still Limits Health Research On Gun Violence". NPR. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
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