House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda

House of Representatives
Session of 2017 - 2018 Regular Session

Posted:	March 26, 2018 04:00 PM
From:	Representative Ed Gainey
To:	All House members
Subject:	Resolution: Directing the Joint State Government Commission to Research Gun Violence as a Public Health Crisis

In Pennsylvania, a person is killed with a gun every six hours, and every two days a police officer is assaulted with a gun. It is estimated that roughly 40% of firearms sold in the U.S. are sold without a meaningful background check, amounting to millions of firearms every year. Furthermore, violent behavior due to a mental health disorder accounts for only about 4% to 5% of gun violence. In 2012, former Congressman Jay Dickey, the author of the controversial 1997 Dickey Amendment which prohibited the Center for Disease Control (CDC) from using federal funds to research gun violence as a public health crisis, announced his opposition to his own amendment. He stated that researching gun violence as a public health crisis can help to reduce the impact of gun violence without infringing upon Second Amendment rights. I believe that the General Assembly must not sit idly by as thousands of Pennsylvanians are injured or killed by firearms every year. We, as state legislators, must utilize every tool that we have to keep Pennsylvanians safe from gun violence. Therefore, please join me in co-sponsoring this important resolution to direct the Joint State Government Commission to research gun violence as a public health crisis and issue a report of its findings and recommendations to the General Assembly.
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Introduced as HR837