It should be clear that in 1996, a funding freeze was put in place for all federal research funds to stay away from gun control research that went even touched policy. From the top down, it was just a no touch area and so the science just stopped.<p>Because this project is crowdfunded, there will be no restrictions. For the first time in a long time, a researcher will be able to dive into a previously released CDC data set looking at gun control policies and related gun violence.<p>This is huge, because this project is picking up the slack where others are unable to go.
I'm disappointed to see the study focus only on gun violence. I think if someone is determined to inflict harm on themselves or another person they will tend to use the most effective and expedient means of doing so at their disposal. I'd prefer to see the study examine violence in general.
I'd support an unbiased and scientific study, but I don't think this is likely to be one, nor would anything the CDC/NIH funds be likely to be.<p>The only funding source I could imagine being impartial would be either a large organization with balanced pro and anti gun agenda (say, the US Military -- it has a pro-gun agenda due to interests of members and mission, but is very safety conscious and runs the world's largest school system as well.) Or maybe taking equal amounts of money from a pro gun group and an anti gun group and giving it to a fairly independent researcher with no ongoing ties to the organizations.
Given recent events, we definitely need more real data and research to understand what can make each of us safer, and if there is a need for more comprehensive policy overhauls. We should all support this research effort!