CDC Director Commits to
More 'Gun-Violence' Research

That was the message from CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky as she announced the agency's plans to undertake more gun-violence research. On Friday, she told CNN "something has to be done" about the issue, and the agency believes "it's pedal to the metal time" despite continuing concerns from gun-rights advocates. She said the agency needed to act quickly as murders spike in cities across the country.

"Every day we turn on the news, and there are more young people dying," Walensky told the news station. "I swore to the President and to this country that I would protect your health. This is clearly one of those moments, one of those issues, that is harming America's health."

The CDC's foray into matters of gun research has been a polarizing force in the history of American gun politics. In 1996, gun-rights advocates successfully lobbied Congress to slash the CDC's funding for gun research due to the belief that its work was politically motivated. They pointed to public statements from Dr. Mark Rosenberg, then the director of the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, as evidence of the political motivation.

"We need to revolutionize the way we look at guns, like what we did with cigarettes," Rosenberg said in 1994. "It used to be that smoking was a glamour symbol, cool, sexy, macho. Now it is dirty, deadly, and banned."

Walensky claimed the new research would not be about gun-control advocacy but about studying ways to prevent harm from firearms.

"I'm not here about gun control," she said. "I'm here about preventing gun violence and gun death." .....