Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente will put $2 million toward gun-violence research within the health system, The Washington Post reports.
Kaiser Permanente officials said the system decided to allot funds to research firearms due to the number of patients affected by gun violence — its physicians treated more than 11,000 gunshot wounds between 2016 and 2017, according to the report.
The system is also donating funds to the cause because little is known about how to prevent gun injuries, as federal funding for research has been scarce since Congress passed the Dickey Amendment, according to the report. The amendment, which the National Rifle Association lobbied for, effectively ended gun violence research at the CDC. The last year the CDC had funding for gun violence research was 1996, when it had $2.6 million.
The health system plans to put funds toward identifying what data would be most beneficial, as well as the interventions that will be most effective in a healthcare setting to reduce gun injury and violence, according to the report.
Read the full story here.
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