But even if reporting police violence data were compulsory, there'd still be big obstacles to using that data in any sensible way. That's because thanks to Republicans and the National Rifle Association, it's been illegal for more than 20 years for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct any research on gun violence.
That's right -- illegal!
This ban began back in the 1990s after the CDC published some good, solid research into gun violence. One of the first studies they did found a clear relationship between increases in gun ownership and increased homicide rates.
The NRA didn't like where this was going for obvious reasons, so it started pushing its bought-and-paid-for shills in Congress to do something about those pesky scientists at the CDC. The NRA got its wish in 1996 when Republican Congressman Jay Dickey introduced what's now known as the Dickey Amendment.
It was a policy rider attached to a spending bill and it stated that, "None of the funds available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be used to advocate or promote gun control."
Because it's so broadly worded, the Dickey Amendment has had a chilling effect on gun research at the federal level.
No one wants to go to jail for doing their job, and CDC researchers live in fear that they'll become the next Lois Lerner, dragged in front of a congressional kangaroo court and forced to testify for hours on end.
Tragically, we really need the information from good studies about police violence--but the Dickey Amendment has prevented them from being done.
Therefore, we don't know what kind of connections there are between gun ownership and police violence, connections we should have known about years ago but haven't because of the gun industry's stranglehold over public policy.
The NRA, of course, couldn't be happier with this situation. But this is just absurd. Even Jay Dickey thinks so. He's now come out against his own amendment and thinks it should be repealed.
He's right.
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