Public health experts and physicians are calling on the National Institutes of Health to renew research into gun violence, following the deadliest mass shooting in modern Amreican history, which killed 58 people and injured 500 in Las Vegas Sunday night, according to STAT.
Here are six things to know.
1. After the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., former President Barack Obama called on health agencies to fund research into firearms. In response, the NIH devoted $18 million of its $34 billion annual budget to fund more than 20 firearm research projects.
2. The program that provided the research funds expired in January and has yet to be renewed. At present, NIH accepts gun violence research proposals under general funding opportunities, an agency spokesman told STAT. However, physicians and public health experts told the publication the Las Vegas shooting highlights the need for NIH to allocate specific funds for gun violence research.
3. The public health community generally feels a sense of urgency to study gun violence after a shooting, according to Rinad Beidas, PhD, an assistant professor of clinical psychology at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia.
"But the urgency tends to fade with time," he told STAT. "Having a standing program announcement that says, 'Hey, this is important, this is something we want to support,' signals to the research community that this work needs to be done."
4. Sanjeev Sriram, MD, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine in the District of Columbia, told STAT a renewal of the NIH program would create more opportunities to study mass shooting prevention strategies.
"There are tons of questions we [have] about mass shootings," Dr. Sriram said. "There's research that can be done, like looking at the factors that have allowed communities to prevent a mass shooting."
5. Charles Branas, PhD, chair of the epidemiology department at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health in New York City, told STAT more attention should be paid to gun suicides, which affect many Americans. If more members of the public viewed gun violence research as an effort to combat a public health crises, rather than threaten the Second Amendment, such research would have more support, he added.
"Gun violence is everyone's problem," Dr. Branas said. "Everyone's at risk. If the event in Las Vegas doesn't demonstrate that, I don't know what does."
6. The NIH spokesman told STAT the agency is considering renewal of the gun violence research program.
More articles on population health:
Alphabet spinout to address socioeconomic disparities in health with personalized care
CDC investigates blockchain for disease surveillance: 4 things to know
Google creates 'Searching for Health' tool to improve health, disease tracking