WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-5), Chair of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, released the following statement on the Dickey Amendment’s, which bans gun violence research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), inclusion omnibus bill:
“The inclusion of this rider is outrageous. 30-plus people are being killed every day by someone using a gun, and House Republicans refuse to even take the most basic steps to help lesson this loss of life. Here’s how you know the Dickey Amendment needs to be thrown out: medical professionals say so, scientific researches say so, and Jay Dickey himself says so.
“No one can offer one good reason to keep this ban in place. This rider has prohibited experts at the CDC from reaching the causes and best ways to prevent gun violence for nearly 20 years. The omnibus bill gave us a chance to fix that, but once again Republicans refused to simply get out of the way and let our experts do what they do best – conduct research that will save some lives.”
On December 1st, former Republican U.S. Rep. Jay Dickey sent a letter to Thompson in which he called for the Dickey Amendment to be repealed, and for federal research to be conducted on the causes of gun violence, provided that nothing is done to infringe the rights of gun ownership.
In his letter Dickey writes, “Research could have been continued on gun violence without infringing on the rights of gun owners, in the same fashion that the highway industry continued its research without eliminating the automobile… it is my position that somehow or someway we should slowly but methodically fund such research until a solution is reached. Doing nothing is no longer an acceptable solution.”
The Dickey Amendment, authored in 1996, effectively blocked the CDC from carrying out the necessary research to better understand how to prevent gun violence
The full text of Dickey’s letter is below.
GUN VIOLENCE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH NEEDED
December 1, 2015
Many years ago the highway industry took on studying from a scientific viewpoint how head on collisions could be reduced. They didn’t include in their scope of study the elimination of the automobile, which would have been a simple solution, but what came out of this were three or four foot barricades that are placed in between lanes of traffic in our interstate highway system. We have all seen these fences, but what isn’t generally known is how overwhelmingly successful this project has become.
Back in 1998, I took part in cutting off gun violence research dollars at the federal level because of what was considered a misapplication of the dollars by the CDC. I have recently expressed my regrets that we didn’t continue that research with the provision that nothing shall be done in this project to infringe the rights of gun ownership as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution in the Second Amendment.
Research could have been continued on gun violence without infringing on the rights of gun owners, in the same fashion that the highway industry continued its research without eliminating the automobile.
There is no ready answer to the question “How are we going to accomplish the desired result of reducing gun violence under these circumstances?” For sure the same dilemma faced the scientists in the highway industry some years ago. The highway industry answered the question of how to reduce traffic fatalities through scientific research. In the same way, scientific research should help answer how we can best reduce gun violence.
Even though my opinion and the opinion of my colleague, Dr. Mark Rosenberg, have been spread to media outlets all over our country, there has been only one member of Congress who has expressed any support for this endeavor. I can tell that member that though there is no groundswell of agreement, at least I have not been tarred and feathered and run out of town…yet.
To sum this up, it is my position that somehow or someway we should slowly but methodically fund such research until a solution is reached. Doing nothing is no longer an acceptable solution.
Jay Dickey
Member of Congress, 1993-2000
Congressman Mike Thompson represents California’s 5th Congressional District, which includes all or part of Contra Costa, Lake, Napa, Solano and Sonoma Counties. He is a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee. Rep. Thompson is also a member of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition and chairs the bipartisan, bicameral Congressional Wine Caucus.
