Letter: Guns left out of violence study

Wednesday, June 9, 1999 | 9:33 a.m.

After the shooting at Columbine, I heard the surgeon general, Dr. David Satcher, interviewed on National Public Radio.

He said that the Centers for Disease Control gets funding from Congress to study violence in the United States as a public health issue.

Interestingly enough, he also said that researchers at the CDC are not allowed to use any of that funding to study one component of the problem: guns.

I wonder why and maybe you do, too.

Let's all call members of Nevada's congressional delegation (Reps. Shelley Berkley and Jim Gibbons and Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan) and ask a few simple questions:

Is what Dr. Satcher said about Congress -- not allowing funds for the study of the impact of guns on the violence in the U.S. -- true?

Why would any member of Congress not want this element of violence studied?

How did each of these folks vote on this funding and why?

We're all just dying to know the answers.

STEVI CARROLL

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