Louis Jacobson, PolitiFact
“Congress prohibits the NIH from researching the cause of mass shootings.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in an April 21 publish on X
The National Institutes of Health is the federal authorities’s foremost company for supporting medical analysis. Is it barred from researching mass shootings? That’s what presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. mentioned not too long ago.
Kennedy, whose statements about conspiracy theories earned him PolitiFact’s 2023 “Lie of the Year,” is operating as an impartial third-party candidate in opposition to President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic candidate, and the presumptive Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump.
On April 21 on X, Kennedy flagged his latest interview with conservative commentator Glenn Beck, which touched on gun coverage. Kennedy summarized his gun coverage views within the publish, writing, “The National Institutes of Health refuses to investigate the mystery; in fact, Congress prohibits the NIH from researching the cause of mass shootings. Under my administration, that rule ends — and our kids’ safety becomes a top priority.”
But this data is outdated.
In 1996, Congress handed the “Dickey Amendment,” an appropriations invoice provision that federal officers extensively interpreted as barring federally funded analysis associated to gun violence (although some observers say this was a misinterpretation). Congress in 2018 clarified that the availability didn’t bar federally funded gun-related analysis, and funding for such efforts has been flowing since 2020.
Kennedy’s marketing campaign didn’t present proof to assist his assertion.
What Was the Dickey Amendment?
After criticizing some federally funded analysis papers on firearms within the mid-Nineteen Nineties, pro-gun advocates, together with the National Rifle Association, lobbied to halt federal authorities funding for gun violence analysis.
In 1996, Congress authorised appropriations invoice language saying that “none of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be used to advocate or promote gun control.” The language was named for one in every of its backers, Rep. Jay Dickey (R-Ark).
But the Dickey Amendment, as written, didn’t ban all gun-related analysis outright.
“Any honest research that was not rigged to produce results that helped promote gun control could be funded by CDC,” mentioned Gary Kleck, a Florida State University criminologist. But CDC officers, specialists mentioned, interpreted the Dickey Amendment as banning all gun-related analysis funding.
This notion meant the modification “had a chilling effect on funding for gun research,” mentioned Allen Rostron, a University of Missouri-Kansas City legislation professor who has written about the amendment. Federal businesses “did not want to take a chance on funding research that might be seen as violating the restriction” and so “essentially were not funding research on gun violence.”
Also, the Dickey Amendment focused solely the CDC, not all different federal businesses. Congress expanded the restriction to cowl NIH-funded analysis in 2011.
Although the Dickey Amendment didn’t bar gun-related analysis, federal decision-makers acted as if it did by not pursuing such analysis.
Moving Past the Dickey Amendment
Over time, critics of the gun business made a difficulty of the Dickey Amendment and gathered congressional assist to make clear the modification.
In 2018, lawmakers authorised language that mentioned the modification wasn’t a blanket ban on federally funded gun violence analysis. By 2020, federal analysis grants on firearms started to be issued once more, beginning with $25 million to be break up between the CDC and NIH.
By now, the CDC and NIH are funding a “large portfolio” of firearm violence-related analysis, mentioned Daniel Webster, a professor on the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Also, the Justice Department’s National Institute of Justice has funded the largest study of mass shootings thus far, Webster mentioned, and is seeking applications for research of mass shootings.
Our Ruling
Kennedy mentioned, “Congress prohibits the NIH from researching the cause of mass shootings.”
Although the Dickey Amendment, a provision of appropriations legislation supported by the gun business, didn’t prohibit all federally supported, gun-related analysis from 1996 to 2018, decision-makers acted as if it did.
However, in 2018, Congress clarified the availability’s language. And since 2020, CDC, NIH, and different federal businesses have funded hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in gun-related analysis, together with research on mass shootings.
We charge Kennedy’s assertion False.
Our Sources
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. post on X, April 21, 2024
National Institutes of Health, “NIH Awards Additional Research and Training Grants to Support Firearm Injury and Mortality Prevention Science,” Sept. 20, 2023
National Institute of Justice, “Public Mass Shootings: Database Amasses Details of a Half Century of U.S. Mass Shootings with Firearms, Generating Psychosocial Histories,” Feb. 3, 2022
National Institute of Justice, “NIJ FY24 Research and Evaluation on Firearm Violence and Mass Shootings,” Feb. 5, 2024
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Funded Research,” accessed April 22, 2024
American Psychological Association, “A Thaw in the Freeze on Federal Funding for Gun Violence and Injury Prevention Research,” April 1, 2021
Allen Rostron, “The Dickey Amendment on Federal Funding for Research on Gun Violence: A Legal Dissection” (American Journal of Public Health), July 2018
Email interview with Gary Kleck, a Florida State University criminologist, April 22, 2024
Email interview with Daniel W. Webster, professor on the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, April 22, 2024
Email interview with Jaclyn Schildkraut, government director of the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium on the Rockefeller Institute of Government, April 22, 2024
Email interview with Mike Lawlor, University of New Haven criminologist, April 22, 2024
Email interview with Allen Rostron, University of Missouri-Kansas City legislation professor, April 22, 2024
KFF Health News is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about well being points and is among the core working packages at KFF—an impartial supply of well being coverage analysis, polling, and journalism. Learn extra about KFF.
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