I got your liberal gun control agenda right here

[MightyMopar]

31. National Rifle Association (NRA), has systematically suppressed data about gun violence

1) Dig for the Data
The gun issue demands a great deal of professional rigor from journalists because the chief lobbying group for the gun industry, the National Rifle Association (NRA), has systematically suppressed data about gun violence and the impact it has on Americans’ lives.

When Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) studies in the early 90s revealed that guns in the home present more of a danger to the occupants than potential home invaders, the NRA used its political muscle to prevent the agency from funding research on firearms’ death and injury. For approximately 15 years, the CDC appropriations bill has contained the following language: “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.” According to Mark Rosenberg, former director of the CDC’s National Center for Injury Control and Prevention, “We’ve been stopped from answering the basic questions.” This year, the NRA was successful in adding a similar amendment to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) appropriations language.

The NRA has also acted to stifle the amount and quality of data available to the public regarding illegal firearms trafficking. The “Tiahrt Amendments” to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) appropriations bill prevent the media, researchers and the general public from accessing detailed trace data on guns recovered from crime scenes. This greatly hinders researchers’ attempts to “connect the dots” when it comes to deriving broader patterns of interstate (and international) gun trafficking.

The overall result is that gun-related research has been stifled. The gun lobby is quick to cite a 2004 National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report, claiming it found that gun violence prevention laws have no positive effect. In truth, the report concluded that the effectiveness of gun laws can’t be evaluated yet because there simply isn’t a sufficient quantity or quality of data to make such a determination (the report did specifically analyze the work of Fox News commentator John Lott and found there is no evidence that the relaxation of concealed carry laws across the country reduces crime). Since the NAS review, there have been new studies (conducted by Daniel Webster, Garen Wintemute and others) that show the positive effects of gun violence prevention policies, so it is important to consider the full body of research that is currently available.

Finally, reporters should note that gun-related websites are infamous for being sources of bogus quotes, statistics and misinformation (as has been well documented by MSNBC host Rachel Maddow). The bottom line is that reporters must exercise due diligence to uncover the facts and data necessary to get a story right.

http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ask_this.view&askthisid=554