I’m not a fan of the NRA, but there’s two important pieces of this puzzle to mention. At the same time the CDC published that study, they also internally suppressed their own study about defensive gun use.
They were also quite public about using the idea of a “gun epidemic” to end-around the second amendment, by making gun ownership into a public health issue, and using their weight to manipulate public opinion.
I’ve seen the same sort of behavior out of the CDC today with regard to nicotine vapes. They’re intentionally suppressing their use by conflating them with cigarettes, when in fact vapes could save lives.
Knowing the sorts of people who work at the CDC (I’m in Atlanta) I can understand why the NRA did what they did. And also, be clear, the NRA never eliminated the CDC’s ability to do research. The Dickey Amendment just prevented them from advocating policy.
