Political | Process

CDC Director wants the agency to take on firearm violence for the first time in decades.

• Congress stopped funding the CDC’s gun violence research in 1997 under pressure from the National Rifle Association, and the agency’s directors in the time since have largely stayed mum on the issue until now.

• The funding changed during the Trump administration, when Congress passed spending bills allocating $25 million for the CDC and National Institutes of Health to research gun violence.  

• But Walensky says she’s trying to walk a thin line between sounding the alarm on the issue without alienating gun owners or adding to politicization of the issue. 

SOURCE: BUSINESSINSIDER