Can new gun violence research find a path around the political stalemate?
Dr. Garen J. Wintemute, who directs the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis, Medical Center in Sacramento, said he lost grant money after the Dickey Amendment was enacted. In the two decades that followed, he said, his work has been supported by the state of California, by foundations, as well as the N.I.H., which was not specifically named in the Dickey Amendment, and the Justice Department. He said he had also spent a little more than $2 million of his own money to continue the work.
“It’s as if we had decided, ‘Let’s not do research on coronavirus, let’s not do research on cancer or heart disease, let’s just let this problem run its course,’” he said. “How many thousands of people are dead who would be alive today if that research had been allowed to continue 25 years ago?”