The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
Gun control is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms by civilians.
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a nonprofit organization of conservative state legislators and private sector representatives who draft and share model legislation for distribution among state governments in the United States.
Charles Michael Thompson is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for California's 5th congressional district since 1999. The district, in the outer northern portion of the San Francisco Bay Area, includes all of Napa County and parts of Contra Costa, Lake, Solano, and Sonoma Counties. Thompson chairs the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
Christopher J. Van Hollen Jr. is an American attorney and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Maryland since January 3, 2017. From 2003 to 2017 he served as the U.S. representative for Maryland's 8th congressional district. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
Gun politics is an area of American politics defined by two primary opposing ideologies about civilian gun ownership. People who advocate for gun control support strengthening regulations related to gun ownership; people who advocate for gun rights oppose new regulations or support loosening restrictions related to gun ownership. These groups often disagree on the interpretation of laws and court cases related to firearms as well as about the effects of firearms regulation on crime and public safety. It is estimated that U.S. civilians own 393 million firearms, and that 35% to 42% of the households in the country have at least one gun. The U.S. has by far the highest estimated number of guns per capita in the world, at 120.5 guns for every 100 people.
Earl Francis Blumenauer is an American lawyer, author, and politician serving as the U.S. representative for Oregon's 3rd congressional district since 1996. The district includes most of Portland east of the Willamette River.
Roy Dean Blunt is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator for Missouri, a seat he was first elected to in 2010. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 33rd Missouri Secretary of State (1985–1993) and U.S. Representative for Missouri's 7th congressional district (1997–2011).
Eliot Lance Engel is an American politician who served as a U.S. representative from New York from 1989 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented a district covering portions of the north Bronx and southern Westchester County.
The Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) is a United States federal law signed by President Bill Clinton on September 13, 1994. The Act provided $1.6 billion toward investigation and prosecution of violent crimes against women, imposed automatic and mandatory restitution on those convicted, and allowed civil redress when prosecutors chose to not prosecute cases. The Act also established the Office on Violence Against Women within the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Violence Policy Center(VPC) is an American nonprofit organization that advocates for gun control.
Gun violence in the United States results in tens of thousands of deaths and injuries annually. In 2018, the most recent year for which data are available as of 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) National Center for Health Statistics reports 38,390 deaths by firearm, of which 24,432 were by suicide. The rate of firearm deaths per 100,000 people rose from 10.3 per 100,000 in 1999 to 12 per 100,000 in 2017, with 109 people dying per day or about 14,542 homicides in total, being 11.9 per 100,000 in 2018. In 2010, there were 19,392 firearm-related suicides, and 11,078 firearm-related homicides in the U.S. In 2010, 358 murders were reported involving a rifle while 6,009 were reported involving a handgun; another 1,939 were reported with an unspecified type of firearm. In 2011, a total of 478,400 fatal and nonfatal violent crimes were committed with a firearm.
Everytown for Gun Safety is an American nonprofit organization which advocates for gun control and against gun violence. Everytown was created in 2013 when Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America joined forces.
Richard Lawrence Saslaw is an American politician serving as Majority Leader of the Senate of Virginia since 2020. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1976–80, then was elected to the Senate of Virginia. He currently represents the 35th district, made up of the city of Falls Church and portions of Fairfax County and the city of Alexandria.
Giffords is an American advocacy and research organization focused on promoting gun control. The organization draws its name from that of one of its co-founders, Gabby Giffords, a former Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Rep. Giffords was shot along with 18 others at a constituent meeting in Tucson in 2011. The organization has three parts: a 501(c)(4) lobbying arm, a 501(c)(3) research arm, and a super PAC. It was previously known in a different configuration as Americans for Responsible Solutions.
Matthew Thomas Shea is an American lawyer, pastor, and politician. A Republican, he represented the 4th legislative district in the Washington House of Representatives from 2009 to 2021. A 2019 report published by the Washington House of Representatives accused Shea of domestic terrorism in relation to his role in a series of standoffs with federal authorities.
An Act Concerning Gun Violence Prevention and Children's Safety, also known as Public Law 13-3 or Connecticut Senate Bill No. 1160, is a bill concerning gun laws in Connecticut. The legislation was introduced by Senator Donald Williams in the state senate and by House Speaker Brendan Sharkey in the state House of Representatives. It was cosponsored by Rep. Ezequiel Santiago, Rep. Matthew Ritter, Rep. Matthew Lesser, Rep. Larry B. Butler, Rep. Auden Grogins, Rep. Patricia A. Dillon, Rep. Catherine F. Abercrombie, and Senator Andres Ayala. The bi-partisan bill passed the Senate by a vote of 26 to 10 and the House of Representatives by a vote of 105-44 on April 3, 2013.
After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, multiple gun laws were proposed in the United States at the federal and state levels. The shooting renewed debate about gun control. The debates focused on requiring background checks on all firearm sales, and on passing new and expanded assault weapon and high-capacity magazine bans.
The Trace is an American non-profit journalism outlet devoted to gun-related news in the United States. It was established in 2015 with seed money from the largest gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, which was founded by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, and went live on 19 June of that year. The site's editorial director is James Burnett.
The Dickey Amendment is a provision first inserted as a rider into the 1996 United States federal government omnibus spending bill that mandated that "none of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) may be used to advocate or promote gun control." In the same spending bill, Congress earmarked $2.6 million from the CDC's budget, the exact amount that had previously been allocated to the agency for firearms research the previous year, for traumatic brain injury-related research.
