I don’t know about you, but I need some good news this week. And there is a happy crumb to report: the House Appropriations Committee has rejected an amendment that would allow the CDC to “study the underlying causes of gun violence” (not that guns are violent in and of themselves, but you know the drill).

In doing so, House Republicans stopped Democrats from funding Obama-directed CDC research designed as subterfuge for laying the foundation of an attack on our Second Amendment rights. Instead of turning gun control into a national health issue, Obama and his bureaucrat cronies are back to having to fight the Second Amendment on emotional pleas and using victims as political pawns.

Politico reports:

The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday rejected, 19-32, an amendment from top Democratic appropriator Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) that would allow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study the underlying causes of gun violence. The CDC hasn’t done any such research since 1996, when the National Rifle Association accused it of trying to use science to promote gun control. Congress threatened to totally defund the agency if the work continued, and appropriators ever since have included a prohibition on funding that kind of research with spending bills. A House GOP staffer said the existing provision technically doesn’t bar gun-violence research. Rather, it blocks any gun-control advocacy by the CDC. However, Republicans would consider any CDC findings that recommend limitations on guns to be gun-control advocacy.

Democrats were eager to emphasize that the proposed amendment centered on research, not on our right to keep and bear arms. Again from Politico:

“In Charleston, in Newtown, several times in Colorado and elsewhere … we find out the warning signs after shots were fired,” Lowey said. “This is not about a gun registry. There is no gun confiscation. There is absolutely no harm to the Second Amendment. This is about research. My amendment is about research, nothing more.” . . . Democrats lined up to speak on the amendment at the hearing. Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) shared details of a survey that found Chicago-based elementary kids were more afraid of getting shot than getting braces. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) tried to emphasize that this was research, nothing else: “The notion that somehow research is our enemy is just wrong-headed. And for people to chip away at our ability to investigate efforts that are about public health and prevention, is wrong-headed. There is no reason not to fund this research.”

Despite their protest to the contrary, Democrats want the research to use as a means of imposing gun control.

Following is a video from the Young Turks (progressives), note the “research and destroy” image they use. I’ve included it as the featured image because this encapsulates the exact reason Democrats propose these amendments every few years.

The problem is when an executive agency, one that has nothing to do with guns, becomes embroiled in the administration’s anti-gun, anti-Second Amendment agenda.

As Hot Air notes:

At a quick glance we might wonder what in the world the Center for Disease Control would be doing getting involved with gun related injuries in the first place. A gunshot isn’t a disease unless you survive a botched medical procedure and come down with lead poisoning at a later date. But liberals have long been keen on treating guns themselves as a social illness and one in need of redress. In that light, it’s not all that shocking that Democrat administrations would try to enlist the CDC into the gun grabbing battle. It’s a powerful bit of symbolism if they can accomplish it, much the same way that the Left attempts (with frequent success) to redefine the language to best suit their own purposes. Before too very long I expect the CDC to begin examining whether or not favoring tax cuts qualifies as a mental disorder.

Rejection of this amendment effectively shuts down another proposed avenue of attack on the Second Amendment, one that Obama directed the CDC to explore in a 2013 executive order.

From the Washington Post:

One of President Obama’s less-noticed actions on guns yesterday could actually prove to be one of the most significant in the long run. Among other things, the president signed an executive order directing the Centers on Disease Control to start studying “the causes of gun violence” once again. . . . . In his executive order, Obama clarified that the Centers on Disease Control should go forward with research on “causes and prevention of gun violence.” In other words, stop being so timid. Conduct research on anything that’s not expressly forbidden by Congress.

While Congress has not expressly forbidden the research, it has denied funding for two years that would enable the CDC to fulfill Obama’s executive order. And in striking down this amendment, Congress has made it very clear that anti-gun advocacy and research will not be conduced by the CDC.



