By J. D. Heyes

One of the reasons why Leftist Democrats love big government is because they can use it to give themselves, their party, and â€” importantly â€” their agenda an air of legitimacy.

Thatâ€™s why majority House Democrats are pushing for more funding for â€œgun violence researchâ€ and theyâ€™re looking to a familiar ally to provide it: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has a history of producing â€˜politically correct scienceâ€™ on the subject of guns, especially.

AsÂ The HillÂ reported last week, Democrats are attempting to claim that gun violence has become a â€œpublic health emergency,â€ despite FBI and government statistics to the contrary and all while they work to thwart POTUS Donald Trumpâ€™s declaration of aÂ realÂ national emergency along the U.S.-Mexico border â€” justÂ like Barack Obama said it was in 2014.


â€œWe should not be afraid of research, said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), chair of the House Appropriations Committeeâ€™s subcommittee on health. â€œGun violence is a public health emergency.â€

She added: â€œThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the nationâ€™s foremost public health agency. And yet, it has been absent from this research agenda for more than 20 years.â€

The GOP is arguing that funding gun violence researchÂ is a Democrat political stuntÂ aimed at producing â€˜evidenceâ€™ that itâ€™s an â€˜emergency.â€™

â€œThe money we spend needs to make a difference as opposed to making a political point,â€ countered Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), the subcommitteeâ€™s ranking member.

The HillÂ noted further:

An amendment passed in 1996Â â€” named for former Rep. Jay Dickey (R-Ark.) â€”Â prevented the use of federal funds to advocate for gun control. But Democrats and public health experts argue it also created a chilling effectÂ at agencies studyingÂ the causes of gun violenceÂ and how to prevent it.Â 

Democrats â€” itâ€™s always Democrats â€” have pushed in recent years to restore funding for gun violence research, complaining that Republicans have blocked their efforts. But the GOP has countered that federal agencies are not barred from conducting gun-related research, just advocating for gun control.

Which, of course, is what Democrats want the CDC to do â€” soÂ theyÂ can push for a â€˜national gun violence emergency.â€™

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The fact is, no such emergency exists. Yes, there is â€˜gun violenceâ€™ in America, but itâ€™s not an emergency. In fact, violent crime ratesÂ fell for the second yearÂ in a row last year, and gun crimesÂ are not at all on the rise, despite a huge increase in the number of guns sold and the number of gun-owning Americans. Whatâ€™s more, todayâ€™s violent crime rate isÂ about halfÂ of what it was at its peak in 1991.

So there is no â€œgun violence emergency,â€ which means that Democrats are pushing for the CDC to push tainted â€œresearchâ€ on the issue so they can use it to argue for more gun control. Thereâ€™s nothing complicated about this; Democrats use federal agenciesâ€™ tainted or rigged research all the time to push their agenda forward. An even great example is the way in which they have managed to coerce federal agencies (with funding) to produce bogus â€œclimate changeâ€ research blaming human activity.

The GOPâ€™s Cole said using federal tax dollars to essentially tell a federal agency what they should be researching isnâ€™t sound science or policymaking.

â€œThereâ€™s some danger there. Weâ€™re pretty careful about trying to let researchers decide what areas of research makes sense,â€ he said. â€œIf youâ€™ve got some legitimate ideas, go out there and do it. Weâ€™re not trying to stop your from researching.â€

A version of this story first appeared at NewsTarget.


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