Over the last few years, there’s been an effort to repeal the Dickey Amendment, a law that prevents the CDC from engaging in anti-gun activism. Since the law’s passage, though, the CDC has refused to do any research into gun violence, citing the Dickey Amendment and arguing that any research would violate the law.

Well, it wouldn’t.

I’m not the only one saying that, either. While anti-gun doctors have been lining up to push this nonsense, at least one pro-gun MD is trying to counter the nonsense.

Dr. Miguel Faria, neurosurgeon and Second Amendment advocate, told Newsmax TV on Monday that the Dickey Amendment passed in the 1990s prevents “gun control propaganda,” not research into gun violence.

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“I have been a critic of the public health establishment when it comes to gun and violence research, and I was asked by the committee what did I think of this research, and I had to answer, very sincerely, that their research was nothing but junk science. That it was politicized, result-oriented research, which means that it had pre-ordained conclusions,” Faria said.

“All those studies that concluded that guns were bad were published, otherwise they would not be published. There was no science in those reports,” he added.

Faria makes an excellent point. We know of at least one study buried by the CDC because it failed to advance the anti-gun narrative. I can only imagine how many others faced a similar fate.

The truth of the matter is that the CDC’s decision to look at the Dickey Amendment as killing all gun research is really nothing more than a case of institutional bias. They looked at gun violence research as nothing more than a license to use tax money to advocate for gun control. They could only see the research as advocacy if they were going into the research with the intention to find data to support the anti-gun narrative.

That’s not science, that’s advocacy.

At the same time, though, the CDC has managed to undermine any faith I have that they can do unbiased research on anything else. They’ve made it quite clear that their bias drives research in one area, so what else is their bias driving research on and just no one’s caught it so far?

I’d like to believe there’s nothing else, but I just can’t.

Regardless, when it comes to guns, there’s nothing in the law stopping the CDC from conducting all kinds of research. What they’re not allowed to do is turn that into advocacy and press for a dismantling of our rights. They apparently feel they can’t do that, so they won’t do any of the research and then blame it on the law.

Absolutely pathetic.

The CDC’s decision, though, is their decision. As Dr. Faria points out, they can do it if they choose to. They’d just have to start doing unbiased research and publishing it even if they don’t like the results. No more sitting on research that backs up the pro-gun side simply because it’s not anti-gun enough.

The question is, do they have it in them to do that?

So far, the answer has been “no.”