GUNSIn 2019, Congress Finally Funded Gun Violence Research. Here’s How It’s Changed the Field
A Trace analysis of federal data found that the amount of money going to gun violence studies has soared since lawmakers lifted a de facto federal funding ban.
In the mid-2010s, as a series of mass shootings set new records for lethality and turned the public’s attention toward America’s gun violence epidemic, the same question was raised again and again: Why won’t the federal government fund gun violence research?
Twice as much federal money was being spent on hernias and ulcers, which aren’t usually fatal, as on gun violence, which took nearly 40,000 lives a year, according to a 2018 accounting. The answer was political.
A 1996 measure pushed by the National Rifle Association had effectively banned the use of taxpayer money for research into anything that could be seen as supportive of gun control. After mass shootings in Charleston, South Carolina; Orlando, Florida; and Las Vegas, Democrats in Congress tried to repeal the de facto ban, and each time it was blocked by Republicans.
Finally, in 2019, there was a breakthrough. In the aftermath of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Congress struck a bipartisan deal to begin allocating $25 million each year to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for gun violence research. The surge of federal dollars was cheered by scientists, who quickly began applying for funding and making up for lost time.
September marked four years since most of the first projects received grants. The Trace analyzed federal data to see how much funding has been doled out, how that money has been spent, and which institutions are getting the lion’s share. The data includes money awarded by the NIH, the CDC, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, which account for the vast majority of federal gun violence research funding.
We learned that the federally funded studies over the past five years have primarily focused on youth gun violence, firearm suicide prevention, and community violence intervention, including the systemic inequities and disparities that contribute to a higher burden for communities of color.
All told, at least $137.1 million in federal funding has flowed to gun violence research since 2020, accounting for 127 projects. That’s a marked difference from the preceding five years, when just $24.5 million was spent on gun violence studies. Annual spending averaged less than $500,000 from 2005 to 2015. Until 2020, funding primarily went toward studies addressing broader public health issues like suicide, alcoholism, or substance use that may have incidentally included firearm violence.
