CDC Restores Self-Defense Firearm Use Data

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reinstated information on its website regarding studies about firearms used for self-defense, reversing a previous decision made during the Biden administration.

According to emails obtained by The Reload, the removal of this information was influenced by a lobbying effort from anti-Second Amendment groups, including support from Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois. The decision to bring back the studies has drawn criticism from advocates against Second Amendment rights.

Devin Hughes from GVPedia stated that this restoration seems like a politically motivated attempt to circulate misinformation, which he claims has characterized the Trump administration’s handling of various scientific inquiries, including those related to gun violence.

As of now, the CDC has not provided a comment regarding this matter.

🚨UPDATE🚨

The CDC restored self-defense statistics to its website after years of Biden-era censorship.

There are up to 2.5 million defensive gun uses per year. This helps explain why Americans value our 2nd Amendment rights.

Thank you, President Trump, & @SecKennedy! 🇺🇸

The CDC noted that estimates of defensive gun usage can vary based on the questions posed, demographics surveyed, and the study design among other factors. They referred to a report summarizing various surveys on this topic, indicating that defensive gun uses range from 60,000 to as many as 2.5 million each year.

In a significant move back in 1996, Congress prohibited the CDC from funding advocacy for gun control based on research that suggested firearms at home could lead to more deaths than uses for self-defense. Pro-Second Amendment advocates have pointed out potential biases against firearms in some research findings.

Deborah Prothrow-Stith, a public health professor at Harvard in the 1990s, once expressed a strong aversion to guns, stating she couldn’t fathom the desire to own one and proposed stringent regulations on firearm ownership.

The CDC has faced scrutiny over its attempts to suppress information during the COVID-19 pandemic as well. In 2022, America First Legal (AFL) disclosed documents that suggested the CDC collaborated with platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Google to control narratives and promote the Biden administration’s messaging.

Reports indicated that the CDC provided Twitter with data on what it deemed misinformation and coordinated meetings to discuss potential misinformation. The agency also supplied Facebook with links to content it identified as erroneous and received advertising credits from Facebook to aid in its outreach.

Collaboration with Google also took place, with the latter agreeing to enhance the visibility of the CDC’s vaccination information while both entities worked together on combating misinformation related to vaccines.