DeLauro Participates in UNH Demonstration on Gun Violence Research

NEW HAVEN, CT — Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-3) todayparticipated in a demonstration at the University of New Haven (UNH) on theuniversity's capabilities to bridge the major gap in research and data analysison firearms violence. Ted Alcorn, research director of Mayors Against IllegalGuns and senior policy analyst for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, alsoparticipated.

The United States lacks reliable research on gun violencedue in part to a 17-year Congressionally imposed funding limitation on theDepartment of Health and Human Services. Restraints also keep the Bureau ofAlcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) from disclosing firearm tracedata. Due to these two provisions, researchers cannot answer some of the mostbasic questions about how to understand and prevent firearm injuries anddeaths.

"We conduct evidence-based research into car crashes, prescriptiondrug usage, smoking, and all sorts of other accidents and injuries," DeLaurosaid. "But for years now, this type of federal research on firearms hasbeen effectively banned for ideological reasons. We should be conducting moreresearch into how to prevent these injuries and save lives, as UNH has thecapability to do. Congress should be doing everything possible to enhancepublic health, not intimidating research centers. As the senior Democrat on theHouse subcommittee that oversees HHS funding, I will fight for these importantresources."

The expertise of UNH's Institute for the Study of ViolentGroups (ISVG), coupled with the Center for Analytics in UNH's Henry C. LeeCollege of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences and ISVG's partnership withYale University's Department of Emergency Medicine, could result in valuabledata about gun violence, injuries, and deaths in Connecticut.

"There are accurate data currently available, which arerich in detail on gun-related violence, injuries and deaths," said UNHPresident Steven Kaplan. "The main problem is that these data arenot being collected and aggregated. This is a task UNH is capable of tacklingimmediately if provided adequate funding."

For over a decade, UNH's ISVG has refined an expertise andability to gather, categorize and analyze tremendous volumes ofinformation. The UNH and Yale University team proposes a Connecticutpilot program that could serve as a national model for systematicallyaggregating and categorizing gun violence incidents in order to provideresearchers with the data necessary to make science-based public policyrecommendations.

"UNH's proposed pilot project for Connecticut is an exampleof how our nation could begin to re-engage in this potentially lifesavingresearch," Alcorn said. "As a result of government policies, the U.S.has conducted virtually no scientific research to understand or prevent gunviolence for almost 20 years. These policies obstruct the access to andanalysis of information related to firearms and violence, making it difficultto study the causes of this epidemic of violence."