There is a sickness in the land...and it is time we studied it, to understand it, and treat it.

Three days ago there was another mass shooting in America, in San Bernardino, CA. It is too early to determine the cause of this shooting. It may never be known. But it is time to start solving the problem, so that the number and frequency of these shootings will decline, and one day, hopefully, stop.

There are at least two major world views surrounding guns. One involves gun freedom. One involves gun control. They are polarizing. But even across that large divide, there is at least the common belief that mass shootings are the work of the mentally ill, or terrorists.

Even with that commonality of belief, the U.S. does not perform research on gun violence. A lot of people are throwing around a bunch of assertions about mass shootings and mental illness with no basis. No one knows. Because the research isn't being done.

Here is the history: In 1996 the NRA accused the CDC of advocating gun control. So a Congressman stripped the CDC of $2.6M of funding, the exact amount of money the agency had funded research in gun violence the previous year. The money was returned, with language that stated “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 CDC interpreted that language as not allowing them to do research on guns and health. And since then, none has been done.

The CDC is responsible for researching disease in America. If the CDC imposes a ban on research in America, then research isn't done. Careers are changed or not started on the basis of CDC funding policies.

After the Newtown Shooting, President Obama issued an executive order telling the CDC to get back to studying the causes of gun violence. And nothing has happened. In two years the CDC has issued an agenda of possible research but says they lack the dedicated funding to perform any research.¹

In my lifetime, I have owned four firearms. I have owned three handguns and one semi-automatic rifle. I will purchase more. But the idea that anyone or any organization that owns or advocates any tool should be able to prevent research on health issues that involve that tool is bizarre.

Should the Aerospace Industry Associate be able to prevent the CDC from performing research surrounding the use of an airplane to ram the World Trade Center? Should the American Postal Workers Union be able to prevent the CDC from performing research on Postal Workers going postal? Should the Automobile Manufacturers Association be able to prevent the CDC from doing research on auto deaths. Should the Cigarette manufacturers be able to prevent the CDC from doing research on cigarettes? Why the hell should the NRA be able to prevent the CDC from doing research on gun violence?

When a plane crashes we study the hell out of the accident. Why? So that it won't happen again. So that any systems or hardware or software can be made better. No one advocates banning airplanes because of a crash. Same thing with auto accidents. They happen all the time. And we study them thoroughly to improve the safety of cars, to make them better. Why do we treat the whole area of gun violence the same way? Why is the NRA so paranoid? We aren't even studying guns, per se.

Guns are different. Guns are in the Constitution. Guns are necessary to prevent government tyranny. Bullshit! Guns are a tool. The sooner we treat guns like any other tool with rights and responsibilities no different that cars or airplanes or chain saws is the day that we start doing research to understand how and why they are misused and abused just like any other man made tool

And the sooner we start treating the NRA like any other trade association with its own axes to grind like any other organization, instead of believing it is some mystical organization that will preserve our "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" the sooner we will get on with doing that ourselves, as we are guaranteed in the Constitution, rather than abdicating that duty to an organization that does no such thing.

^{1. Washington Post. Why the CDC still isn’t researching gun violence, despite the ban being lifted two years ago.↩}