Physician StrohCunningham spoke with ScienceInsider about the current state of U.S. gun violence research and what she thinks is needed. ⬇️
In the past two weeks, the United States has seen two horrific high-profile mass shootings: A racially motivated attack at a Buffalo grocery store left 10 dead on 14 May, and a shooter at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killed 2 adults and 19 children on 24 May. Guns are now the number one cause of death in U.S. children, overtaking automobile accidents, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .
For years, researchers including Rebecca Cunningham, an emergency room physician and gun violence researcher at the University of Michigan, have been sounding the alarm on the need for more scientific study of the causes of gun violence and ways to prevent it. But “historically, funding was very kneecapped,” says Cunningham, because beginning in 1996 Congress barred the CDC from spending money"to advocate or promote gun control.
“Now, there is some money for this research -- but it's still massively underfunded,” Cunningham says, especially compared with research for cancer or other diseases that kill children.Insider recently spoke with Cunningham about the current state of U.S. gun violence research and what she thinks is needed. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.Yes.
. Several years ago it was the number two cause of death, and since then the country has continued to take this turn. From a number standpoint, we're certainly not in a better place.The field of firearm injury prevention has grown a lot in the past couple of years. Three, four or five years ago, we had very few scientists studying this. People were so nervous -- it was difficult to get scholars to be comfortable studying it.
There are many pieces of this issue that need to be examined. We need to address communities, we need to address individuals and families, we need to address policies, we have to address how we manage post-injury for people who survive gunshots.