The University of Chicago

The Dickey Amendment

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What is it?

  • The Dickey Amendment is a stipulation in the Congressional budget allocation process that prohibits any federal funding on research that could “promote or advocate for gun control.” 
  • Although the original amendment only applied to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2011, the Amendment was extended to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). 
  • In 2018, amidst a rise in mass shootings across the United States, Congress passed an omnibus spending bill with an accompanying amendment clarifying that federal funding could support research to prevent future mass shootings. While this did not change the Dickey Amendment, it did loosen the regulation on federal gun violence prevention research. 

Who created it?

  • The US Congress created the Dickey Amendment in response to a shift in the 1990s in medical research and beliefs of gun violence. Pivotal studies such as Kellermann (1993) linked gun access to increasing rates of violence, further shifting the narrative of gun violence as a public health policy issue. Because the CDC had created a new center in 1992 to study gun violence, the National Rifle Association (NRA) accused the CDC of bias in favor of gun control. 
  • Consequently, the NRA lobbied Representative Jay Dickey of Arkansas to create a provision in the 1996 federal spending bill to ensure no funds could “advocate or promote gun control” and further redirected the funding for firearm injury research to traumatic brain injury research. 

Who does it impact?

  • While the bill directly impacts federal spending, it indirectly impacts federal gun violence research, which impacts all municipalities. The amendment is reiterated through grants to the CDC, which stipulate that funds “may not be spent on political action or other activities designation to affect the passage of specific federal, state, or local legislation intended to restrict or control the purchase or use of firearms.”.

Support

  • The National Rifle Association continues to advocate its support of the Dickey Amendment. 

Opposition 

  • Gun violence prevention researchers at universities and federal agencies such as the CDC and NIH oppose this amendment because it prohibits them from conducting effective research to reduce gun violence.
  • Although the amendment’s namesake, Jay Dickey, was an original supporter of the bill, he joined the opposition during the rise of mass shootings across the United States, stating “If we had somehow gotten the research going, we could have somehow found a solution to the gun violence without there being any restrictions on the Second Amendment,” Dickey said. “We could have used that all these years to develop the equivalent of that little small fence.”