The executive actions might include
more gun research, increased enforcement of existing laws and better sharing of gun databases.
In the same issue of Science, Philip Cook of Duke University and John Donohue of Stanford University published a Policy Forum discussing the challenges
of gun research.
As Wintemute delved into
gun research in the 1980s, he decided to immerse himself in gun culture.
Wintemute, who has conducted
gun research for three decades, in March leveled similar criticism at a study led by Eric Fleegler, an emergency physician at Boston Children's Hospital in Massachusetts, which found that states with stricter gun laws had lower numbers of firearm fatalities.
Its lean budget — $ 1 million per year over the next 5 years — will likely preclude large - scale studies, but backers hope it will demonstrate the value of publicly
funded gun research and perhaps help build support in Congress for a similar federal effort.
But although President Barack Obama ordered the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to
recommence gun research in the wake of last December's massacre of 20 schoolchildren and 6 adults in Newtown, Connecticut, federal funding for research on gun violence remains scarce so far.
Wintemute was rare in staying devoted to
gun research after the restrictions were imposed.
That's partly
because gun research faces roadblocks at every turn: Scientists have to deal with data shutouts, slashed funding and, occasionally, harassment.
For researchers who manage to navigate the legal tangles and funding troubles
of gun research, actually doing the research itself isn't easy.
But when it comes to
gun research, good science is lacking, says Morral, who led the study.
Looking forward, the RAND team recommends that the federal government increase funding for
gun research to levels comparable to federal research investments in other significant causes of death and injury, such as automobile accidents.