NEW HAVEN - A meeting in March brought hope to U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut) that something that hadn’t been done in over two decades could now be accomplished by lawmakers in Washington. D.C. so, she is moving forward with legislation that will receive a vote in Congress next month.
DeLauro says there has not been gun violence prevention research conducted at the federal level in more than two decades, because laws prevented funding any research that might lead to gun restrictions.
However, in March, Congress conducted its first hearing in over 20 years on gun violence prevention research. So, as the Chairperson of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education, DeLauro is working on a bill to end the trend.
“We put in funding of $25 million for the National Institutes of Health and $25 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” said DeLauro.
Statistics show guns kill an average of 100 people in the United States each day, including four children. Some expert guests of DeLauro at New Haven City Hall Friday suggested areas of research, if the funding or to be approved.
“Suicide, intimate partner violence, accidental shootings, state violence and also mass shootings,” said Brent Peterkin, the
State Coordinator for Project Longevity, a Community and law enforcement initiative to reduce serious violence.
Kristin Song, mother of Ethan Song, who accidentally shot himself to death last year, worked tirelessly on Ethan‘s Law, a measure to improve gun storage mandates in homes and it received final passage in the Connecticut general assembly yesterday.
“Anything that causes our children to die should be studied and, I guess, my question to the NRA is what are they so afraid of,” queried Kristin Song. “Do they think that the studies are really going to prove what we’ve been saying all along?”
When DeLauro introduced the bill this week the NRA responded by saying “There is no scientific evidence that government mandated, one-size-fits-all,storage schemes reduce juvenile accidental firearm deaths or suicides.”
“It’s just incomprehensible that they would take this type of stance when on their website they’re promoting safe storage,” said Po Murray, Chairperson of Newtown Action Alliance.
DeLauro’s bill will be voted on by the House of Representatives in mid-June and then it goes on to the GOP controlled United States Senate.