Historic deal: Congress agrees to fund $25 million in gun violence research

Congress has reached a spending agreement that includes $25 million for gun violence research, the first funding in more than 20 years to study a problem that kills 40,000 people annually.

“It’s the biggest amount that the federal government has ever put into federal firearms research,” Rosenberg noted. “It signals an end to the drought of knowledge about preventing this significant problem.”

“What has happened in the last 20 years is that there’s been a battle raging between the gun-control people and the gun-rights people,” said Rosenberg, who led the NCIPC at the time the Dickey Amendment passed.

“They have spent more time and effort fighting each other than fighting the problem,” he added.

“Is it enough?” Rosenberg said of the $25 million. “Absolutely not.”