SUMMIT, NJ – New Jersey Seventh Congressional District candidate Goutam Jois called out Representative Leonard Lance’s hypocrisy on gun violence. Although Rep. Lance said today that “it’s time to permit the CDC to study gun violence as a public health problem,” he has repeatedly voted to block such research in the past and has not co-sponsored legislation stuck in his own subcommittee to enable such research.“Congressman Lance jumped on the gun safety bandwagon today and said the Centers for Disease Control should study gun violence, yet he has repeatedly blocked legislation that would allow just that, and he refuses to co-sponsor legislation languishing in his own subcommittee to achieve that goal,” said Goutam Jois. “Congressman Lance is a hypocrite. If he believes what he said, he should spare us the cheap talk, stop his obstruction, and take real action by co-sponsoring the pending Gun Violence Research Acts today. Otherwise, he will have shown yet again that he’ll say what is politically convenient without following it up with leadership or action.”

H.R. 1478, the Gun Violence Research Act, has 122 co-sponsors and would eliminate the prohibition on the Department of Health and Human Services using federal funds to advocate or promote gun control. (https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1478)

H.R. 4573, the Gun Violence Research Act of 2017, has 27 co-sponsors and would clarify that the Dickey Amendment does not prevent the use of funds for research on mental health, gun violence, and how they intersect, and to provide for reporting on the effects of gun violence. (https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/4573/)

In February, 2016, Lance voted against designating gun violence research a priority for the National Science Foundation [H.R. 3293, Vote# 69], voted to block consideration of a bill that “would lift a ban on allowing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes of gun violence to research the causes of gun violence” [H.R. 609, Vote #65], and repeatedly voted to block consideration of the Gun Violence Research Act [H.R, 595, Vote #55 and H.R. 611, Vote #77, H.R. 594, Vote #48].