Colleague Austin Frakt forwarded to me the link to an open letter to VP Joseph Biden and members of the Gun Violence Commission.

http://crimelab.uchicago.edu/sites/crimelab.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/Biden%20Commission%20letter_20130110_final.pdf

The letter is signed by over 100 well-known health professionals, policymakers and economists.

The letter addresses the fact that both teh CDC and the NIH agencies are currently prohibited from funding research on the health effects of guns.

Anyone serious about wanting to understand how to control gun violence should support the letter’s two recommendations:

RECOMMENDATION ONE: We call for the removal of the current barriers to firearm-related
research, policy formation, evaluation and enforcement efforts.

RECOMMENDATION TWO: We call on the federal government to make direct investments in
unbiased scientific research and data infrastructure.

The following table in the letter tells the story clearly.

9 Branas, C., Wiebe, D., Schwab, C. & Richmond, T. (2005) Getting past the “f” word in federally funded public health research, Injury Prevention 11(3): 191.
10 http://projectreporter.nih.gov/reporter.cfm
11 Calculated updated numbers for 2002 -2012 for cholera and rabies using average case occurrences per year