Hours before news broke Wednesday of a mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., doctors in white coats delivered a petition with the signatures of more than 2,000 physicians to Congress demanding that it lift a ban on federal funding for research into gun violence.
The Dickey amendment, which dates back to 1996, effectively barred researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from studying gun violence. The doctors who delivered the petition spoke out about the “public health epidemic” of gun violence and were joined by Democratic lawmakers, according to a report from the Washington Post.
Doctors agree: It’s time to #EndTheBan on @CDC and @NIH research so we can find solutions to the gun violence crisis pic.twitter.com/XDD6hGWBbj
— Doctors for America (@Drsforamerica) December 2, 2015
Later that afternoon, a man and a woman opened fire at a holiday party for county employees in San Bernardino. Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, his wife or fiancee, are suspected of killing 14 people and injuring 17 others. Farook and Malik were later killed in a shootout with police.
Just hours after I stood w/ @Drsforamerica to #EndTheBan, another mass shooting in San Bernadino. #gunviolence is a public health crisis!
— Hemant Sindhu, MD (@CIRPres) December 2, 2015
NOW is NOT THE time for DEMonrat LIBTards POLITIcize GUns. WE NEed MORe GUNs TO PRotect Ourselves FRom alL THEMUSLIM that HAVE guns.
Here’s that (borderline) ‘slam dunk’ court case for the Supremes to address.
Democrats and the president need to hammer away at the message that the CDC is not even allowed to study gun violence. It needs to be widely understood by the American people that Congress actually prohibits the CDC from even attempting to address what is a public health epidemic. Americans need to know what lengths the gun lobby, specifically the NRA, have gone to in order to maintain the status quo. I’m sure most folks think this issue is being addressed and that they just can’t find a solution, not that they’re being actively prohibited from finding one.
Also, right before the shooting was not the time to politicize guns. After all, that still fell within the no-politicize zone defined by last week’s mass shooting. Happily, though, those rules don’t apply when Muslims shoot people–in this case it is acceptable to immediately call for mass deportations, internment camps, etc.
“The Dickey amendment, which dates back to 1996, effectively barred researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from studying gun violence.”
That seems wise.