Recent mass shootings in Atlanta and Boulder have put guns back in the headlines. But the U.S. has been quietly shattering gun records since 2020 began.

People purchased at least 20 million guns — more than ever before — and a record 40% of them went to first-time buyers, raising additional safety and suicide concerns. America’s cities also saw the largest ever one-year spike in homicides, which hit communities of color especially hard.

At the same time, policymakers lack the data and the conclusive studies they need to respond effectively to this public health crisis. The roots of these shortcomings trace back to 1996, when Congress effectively banned the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from funding activities that “advocate or promote gun control.” That move, and others that followed in subsequent years, had a chilling effect on overall federal support for most facets of gun violence research. 

While it can be hard to quantify the impact of this decadeslong drought in federal support, experts often point to the drastic reduction seen in motor vehicle deaths as an example of how comparatively little progress has been made on gun safety. 

Source: Violence Policy Center

Although the politics of cars and guns are not the same, University of Colorado physician and researcher Emmy Betz said, “Our death rate from motor vehicle crashes has fallen drastically over the past decades because we applied science. We made better cars. We put airbags in. We figured out driver education programs, DUI enforcement programs. We didn’t ban cars, but we used science to make driving safer and we did not do that with firearms.”

One JAMA study found that between 2004 and 2015, motor vehicle accidents received 19 times more funding and 26 times more research publications than gun violence. As recently as 2019, the CDC had only dedicated $269,000 of their $7 billion annual budget to firearms-related activities, according to analysis by a gun safety advocacy group.