U.S.A. -(AmmoLand.com)- The line between non-biased data-based research and agenda-driven advocacy is getting blurrier. A new announcement from a renowned research university in Baltimore, Md., is continuing the trend.
The Johns Hopkins University announced a partnership with the Center for Gun Violence Prevention to create the gun control advocacy group Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. The university’s web of non-biased gun control research is tangled as they are already home to the Michael Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Center for Gun Policy and Research.
It’s a playbook gun control uses to highjack opportunities to restrict the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans under the cover of “science” and study criminal gun misuse through a lens of “public health.”
Brand Dilution
Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins is America’s first research university and has achieved world-renown for cancer research, the development of CPR, the discovery of numerous vaccines and health protocols, and even the supersonic ramjet engine. That brand, though, is being diluted by naked partisan gun control groups pushing an agenda.
Baltimore’s WJZ news announced, “A center at Johns Hopkins studying gun violence and another organization have merged, forming the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, which will look at shootings in the U.S. through a public health lens.”
The Bloomberg School is named for billionaire, failed presidential candidate, and perennial gun-control backer Michael Bloomberg. Uncoincidentally, Bloomberg is behind the gun control groups Everytown for Gun Safety, Moms Demand Action and Mayors Against Illegal Guns. He funds The Trace, which is a mouthpiece for gun control efforts and has infiltrated newsrooms at USA Today under the guise of “collaborations.”
Daniel Webster, the new co-leader of the Center for Gun Violence Solutions, said, “With our new colleagues, we will now have even more capacity to bring meaningful policy change through evidence-based advocacy.” Research topics will include violence intervention programs, licensing for firearms, political violence and so-called “ghost guns.”
The last word of Webster’s comment – advocacy – is problematic here, particularly when coupled with the fact that several of the items listed, like firearms licensing and so-called “ghost guns” are matters of regulatory policy and laws set by Congress.
Pushing research as advocacy doesn’t make the Johns Hopkins gun control project a research institution, it makes them a special-interest group.
‘Public Health’ Ruse
The gun control mission of the partnership is not the only problem. The Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions will look at the problem through, “a public health lens.” That has significant implications on the American public if that biased advocacy then leads to public policy and infringes on the Constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans.
“While we all might share the goals of a safer society, this new merger between the private university and a longtime anti-gun group is going to be pushing for ‘solutions’ that make us less safe by depriving us of our ability to protect ourselves,” noted Bearing Arms’ Cam Edwards.
Lumping criminal firearm misuse into “public health” is a scheme used by national gun control groups and policymakers pushing restrictions. An analogy by physician Dr. Paul Hsieh makes the case.
“Which of these things is not like the other? Measles; Influenza; Tuberculosis; Murder. If you picked #4, “murder,” you’re right. The first three are medical diseases. In contrast “murder” is not a medical problem, although it is a tragic cause of death.”
Tom Knighton, also of Bearing Arms, makes a succinct and appropriate response when gun control advocates argue, as they often do, that “public health” issues are sometimes more important than protecting “gun rights,” or any rights for that matter.
Knighton countered this flawed approach, writing, “When you try to say that so-called gun violence is a public health issue and somehow arguments about rights no longer matter, then you’ve crossed a line. Rights always matter.”
The bottom line, there is no inoculation to prevent crime.
Johns Hopkins University and the Bloomberg-funded Center for Gun Violence Solutions are no doubt aware of these realities and are comfortable with the tarnish it brings to any of the research and solutions it promulgates.
Empowerment Vs. ‘Crisis’
During the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, and leading up to the 2020 presidential election, Bloomberg’s Moms Demand Action and Everytown hosted a series of Veepstakes virtual town hall meetings hosted by Shannon Watts. One theme repeated by Watts, again and again, was that “gun violence” was not just a “public heath” crisis, but also a “women’s health crisis.” She claimed more gun control was needed to ensure the public health and safety of women.
The reality is that more women than ever exercised the Second Amendment rights of self-protection and purchased a firearm during those same months. As much as 40 percent of all first-time gun buyers over the past two years have been women.
If it were up to Watts, Bloomberg’s gun control groups, and universities like Johns Hopkins pushing “gun violence” advocacy under the umbrella of “public health,” the rights of millions of those gun-owning women would likely be restricted and their lives in greater danger – not less. Don’t expect Johns Hopkins to research that, though.
About The National Shooting Sports Foundation
NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearm retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations, and publishers nationwide. For more information, visit nssf.org
with the lies that came out from them with covid 19 ,guess they are going to run the name into the ground
Having watched the conduct of the Bloomburg School of Medicine during the Rice Rabies debacle, I have worse than little faith in this entire organisation. Crooked from the git go. Johns Hopkins as the entire institution is heavily tainted by Bloomie and his crones.
Excellent exposé of this outfit. Few realise how corrupt they are.
Blue Pencil: Correction from “John Hopkins University” to “Michael Bloomberg Community College.”
Accuracy in all things. Thank you
Yes, get a second, third or maybe even a fourth opinion when doctors, school nurses ask about firearms. It will probably need that many opinions before you can find one that doesn’t cross your “ethical boundary violation” concerning firearms. Where have you been for the past 30 years??? My oldest daughter just turned 40. Back when she was about to start in elementary school we moved away from Seattle because after this state accepted hundreds of Mariel Boatlift criminals and mentally deficient predators, Seattle started its drift into insanity and it was no place to raise a kid. We needed… Read more »
Good observations. Good dad. Good info!
Whenever I get those blank forms on the demographics/behavioural stuff, I simply leave all the spaces dealing with non-medical stuff blank. Never heard a peep from anyone on such things. And if I do I’ll just walk out. NunnyaBidNiss.
It is difficult to guess how others think, but “no gun, no messy victims” is short circuited logic.
no gun in the bad guy’s hand COULD tend in that direction. But they DO have them and they DO use them, resulting in “messy victims”. What BloomingIdiotBurg refuses to acknowledge is that when the gun is in MY hands, we don’t have as many “messy victims” but we DO have a lot more “messy perps”. And in MY book that is an overall improvement.
Don’t forget that, the whiles, Bloomie has his own private heavily armed and trained security force. Menawhile he wants you and I to be defenseless.
Twisted perv, he.
Johns Hopkins has been doing anti-gun “research” for ages. If I wanted a “scientific” study to show the earth is flat, I’d go to John Hopkins with a fist full of cash.
The bottom line conclusion is wrong. There is an injection that works 100% of the time to prevent crime–the high speed injection of expanding heavy metals.
Some doctors do prescribe, for some perps, intrathoraxic or intracranial infusions of the substances you mention.
I took a quick look at the comments. Some sort of hinted at the bottom line (pun intended) – follow the money. University studies are generally NOT conducted without someone paying the bills via ‘grants’ – since little nanny warbucks is likely paying for this ‘study’ either directly or indirectly – you can bet his money grubbing fingerprints are all over it. And they WILL reach a ‘conclusion’ that favors his anti-gun biases.
They could then learn to deal with stabbings and blunt contact from bats
Guns save a hell of alot more lives than they take or I could be totally politically incorrect and say keep guns out of N_____s hands in the inner city
No more federal funding of any kind to any Anti-gun Institution
It they can’t follow the consitution than no more Federal money …period end of argument.
Another university who is engaging in this extreme political environment that supports only the narrative that suits their board of directors and alumnis point of view. Bloomburg during the presidential debates proved he is nothing but wealthy and not capable of debating current issues he looked like the little man he really is.
The Johns Hopkins University often puts in the right initiatives.
Nice article.