by Joseph P. Tartaro | Executive Editor
What do the Ebola virus and gun control have to do with each other? Just this!
At a time when world health is endangered by the possible spread of the deadly Ebola virus epidemic from West Africa, and the arrival of the first confirmed cases of the deadly disease in the US, a majority of Americans seem convinced that the nation’s public health talents should focus on combating illness and disease rather than gun violence.
This was confirmed by a new scientific poll sponsored by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) which found that 84% of Americans believe violence committed with guns is a criminal issue, not a public health issue. An even higher 88% of respondents said they do not think the CDC should spend resources on studying the use of guns in crime rather than on studying viruses and disease. Some 71% of respondents said that the federal government should not classify gun violence as a public health issue in the manner of viruses and diseases, Townhall.com reported.
For years gun control advocates have tried to turn incidents of “gun violence” into a public health issue in order to justify wide reaching government regulations with allegedly scientific findings. Huge amounts of government money were being spent some 20 years or more ago to fund research studies by the CDC and the National Institute for Health (NIH), studies that were used to justify the arguments of gun control advocates. Millions of dollars in grants were producing junk science that became factoids still in use today by many anti-gun scholars, politicians and journalists.
Congress finally cut off this funding in the early 1990s, but in April of last year, the Obama Administration moved to resume funding such CDC and NIH studies by claiming that violence involving guns is a public health issue, but Congress was not convinced
The new poll, however, shows an overwhelming majority of Americans believe the CDC and NIH should be focused on combating illness and disease, not “gun violence.”
When asked whether the definition of gun violence should be expanded to include accidents and instances of self-defense, nearly three-quarters of respondents said gun violence is a crime committed using a firearm with the intent to injure another person.
The survey was conducted by Harper Polling. The margin of error is +/-3.02 percent. Respondents self-identified as 38% Democrat, 33% Republican and 30% independent. As to ethnicity, 74% of respondents said they were White, 11% African-American, 8% Hispanic; and 7%, other. As to age, 25% of respondents said they were 18-39; 27%, 40-54; 23% 55-65; and 25%, 66 or older.
“As the significant challenges posed by the Ebola epidemic demonstrate, the emphasis of the Centers for Disease Control should remain on the study, prevention and containment of viruses and infectious disease,” NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Lawrence G. Keane said in a press announcement.
“For political reasons, many involved in gun control activism would like to re-define the criminal misuse of guns into a public health issue. We commissioned this survey to help determine where Americans stood on this issue. To put it plainly, they don’t buy it. And given the 20-year reduction in violent crime that the FBI reports, even as the number of firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens has increased, they shouldn’t buy it.”
President Obama ordered the CDC “to research the causes and prevention of gun violence,” but the results of that study were contrary and unhelpful to his policy positions on gun control, according to Townhall.
Now the focus on the Ebola virus in the general media may have helped to reorder priorities.
Obama has been forced to appoint a veteran government insider, Ron Klain, to coordinate his administration’s efforts to contain the Ebola virus.
Klain, a former chief of staff to Vice Presidents Joe Biden and Al Gore, is well-known by Obama and White House aides.
