Unprecedented

7 governors launch ‘unprecedented’ effort to study gun violence

By RYAN HUTCHINS

More than half a dozen governors — most of them Democrats from the Northeast — announced plans Wednesday to launch an “unprecedented” multistate consortium that will study gun violence as a public health issue.

The governors said they were upset at the lack of action from Washington and are looking to fill a void left by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has been restricted in its ability to collect data to advocate for gun control.

“Those of us at the state and local level are taking matters into our hands to curb violence in our communities,” said New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat who took office in January, in a statement. “That’s why I’m proud to join my fellow governors in creating the nation’s first regional gun violence research consortium.”

The new research consortium will work across universes and government agencies across the states involved. The research will be compiled, along with existing data from institutional, federal and multistate sources, into a clearinghouse available for public review. Nearly three dozen scholars have agreed to participate.

Murphy and three others governors involved in the research group — Dannel Malloy of Connecticut, Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island and Andrew Cuomo of New York — had already agreed to work together to combat gun violence. Their “States for Gun Safety“ coalition is sharing data on mental health, arrest warrants and orders of protection, with the goal of being consistent in preventing firearm purchases.

Since announcing the group in February, the governors have also won the backing of Republican Gov. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, along with Democratic Govs. John Carney of Delaware and Ricardo Rosselló of Puerto Rico.

The states and one territory already have strict gun-control laws and, in some cases, are moving to further restrict access to firearms. In New Jersey, for example, the Democrat-controlled Legislature is expected to send Murphy a long list of gun-control measures that could be signed into law by the end of June.

But the state leaders also complained there is only so much they can do on their own, with loose gun laws in other states allowing a steady flow of black-market guns to crisscross the country.

This latest venture is aimed at filling a gap that’s existed since 1996, when federal law began limiting the CDC’s ability to study gun violence. Former President Barack Obama signed an order in 2013 directing the CDC to resume its research, but the work has remained limited.

In February, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told members of Congress that the provision limiting the CDC's work on gun violence prevents it only from taking an advocacy position, not from doing research.

But the governors are still unsatisfied with the status quo.

“The federal government's continued inaction on this issue has not only allowed the epidemic of gun violence to spread, but it has left it to the states to provide the leadership needed to confront this problem head on,” Cuomo said in a statement.