Senator Wyden wants ban on gun violence research lifted

Medford, Ore. — Oregon US Senator Ron Wyden met with doctors, district attorneys and non-profit directors Tuesday to get their input on gun violence in Southern Oregon. It’s a small piece of a much larger puzzle that the senator hopes to present during a short session in September, as he aims to lift a 20 year ban on federally funded research on gun violence.

Senator Ron Wyden met with a wide variety of stakeholders Tuesday to learn about patterns or observations of gun violence in their daily work.

“One of my non-profit colleagues mentioned how at a non-profit we need to have evidence based programs and data to make good decisions,” Brad Russell, Executive Director of the Rogue Valley Family YMCA says.

The senator says using the same ideology for looking at gun violence makes sense.

“It’s about getting good research into the hands of policy makers so they can make judgments that are just common sense,” Senator Ron Wyden says.

Lack of funding for mental health programs, and a high ratio of suicides to homicides were just a few of the issues brought to the table, information the senator says he’ll take to Washington in the fall.

The ban on most federally funded academic research has been in place for 20 years. President Barack Obama issued an executive order in 2013 to continue research but Wyden says a new president could issue an alternative executive order and therefore the law itself would need to change if they want to have no limits on the topics research.