Source: What We Don’t Know Is Killing Us – NYTimes.com.
That Mr. Obama had to make such a decree at all is a measure of the power of the gun lobby, which has effectively shut down government-financed research on gun violence for 17 years. Research on guns is crucial to any long-term effort to reduce death from guns. In other words, treat gun violence as a public health issue.
But that is precisely what the National Rifle Association and other opponents of firearms regulation do not want. In the absence of reliable data and data-driven policy recommendations, talk about guns inevitably lurches into the unknown, allowing abstractions, propaganda and ideology to fill the void and thwart change.
I find it incredibly hard to understand how we as a people can allow a single organization that is primarily funded by gun manufacturers to tell us that we can’t even study why so many die every year from violence each year. Surely my Republican friends out there are not really against studying gun violence. That is the only way we will ever get at the source of this almost overwhelming problem.
Without facts, propaganda and catch phrases dominate our discussions. I am totally sick of the phrase that “guns don’t kill people; people kill people” and all the unsubstantiated rhetoric that goes along with that phrase. Until we study the problem we will never really know how to affect even a partial solution. I thoroughly agree that the problem of violence in our society is not just about guns. Maybe guns themselves are not even a major component. But of course even that assumption is unknown factually because we have kept the researchers from scientifically studying the issue.
When we allow common sense to come into this issue we may start to understand and possibly ameliorate this epidemic. Please, lets agree to at least try to understand the facts about gun violence. If the NRA continues to stand in the way of doing that then I am pleading with my hunting and target shooting friends out there to step in and tell the NRA to stop the obstruction on this topic. That might just be a starting point for some meaningful dialog.
RJ's Corner 
A gun should never e pointed at anyone—even in a picture. The first NRA pledge for gun safety :>) They may be funded by the industry- but there are 4.2 members and many people who support them who are not members. It is a democracy and they have a voice. You might want to think about the Wall Street lobby….
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Good morning Janette, yes if guns were never point at anyone then the problem would be solved wouldn’t it. If only we could make that happen. The picture here is to give you the idea of what over 50,000 people who are killed every year by guns in our country see. It is a scary picture isn’t it. Thanks for your side of the story.
As to being a democracy and free choices, we cannot yell “FIRE” in a theatre because of public safety concerns; the same thing should apply with guns; public safety should demand regulation of these deadly weapons. Before you ask, yes I grew up in a gun culture and regularly hunted rabbits when they were in season. It was a primary means of getting meat on dad’s limited income.
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