GAO Report on guns & cost -NRA’s 1990’s lobbying paid off Dickey Amendment
How many Americans need to died? The NRA’’s CDC lobbying. Twenty years of the Dickey Amendment prohibits Federal funds to be used to study gun related deaths & injuries. ENOUGH REPEAL IT
In May of 2021 I walked you through the Biden Administration’s efforts as it relates to the growing gun issue we have in America. I also need to be clear, I worked for the NRA and my conscious got the better of me and about nine months on the job I quit. I enjoy shooting and both respect and understand the Second Amendment.
I often wonder if the gun nuts actually understand the full text and intent of the;
Second Amendment
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.
NRA November 2018
Let’s take a quick trip down November 2018 NRA Memory Lane - who ever approved this tweet should have been fired, like immediate, like don’t worry about packing up your office … because the NRA is a bankruptcy fraud Terrorist organization. (whispers) the truth isn’t libel the truth is born out in Federal District Court filings so NRA spare me your feign righteous indignation
On May 11, 2021, the United States Bankruptcy Court (NDTX)) issued a decision that resulted in the dismissal of the NRA’s chapter 11 cases. The Court found cause pursuant to section 1112(b) of the Bankruptcy Code. The Court ruled that the pending New York attorney general’s lawsuit (which is seeking the NRA’s dissolution) was not the type of threat that the Bankruptcy Code protects against. Furthermore the Court also found that the NRA’s bankruptcy was likely a cudgel used to “to gain an unfair litigation advantage and to avoid New York’s claims”, nor did it constitute a “good faith for bankruptcy filing purpose” —so yes when I say the NRA bankruptcy fraud scheme was properly adjudicated. And the NY AG case is still ongoing 1
To be clear I’m mindful of how graphic pictures might be a trigger for my readers/followers. Therefore it makes sense to not only refrain from embedding graphic tweets but allow you the choice of clicking on the embedded hashtag. These tweets were in direct response to that NRA tweet the medical community quickly and devastatingly clapped back #ThisIsMyLane <—that will take you to the countless medical professionals tweets and showing us what they see everyday and the carnage guns cause and these men/women in the medical community’s priority is save a life.
Long awaited GAO Report:
Firearm Injuries:Health Care Service Needs and Costs
Published: Jun 16, 2021. Publicly Released: Jul 14, 2021
and your prerequisite multimedia presentation of the GAO Report
Also this is a pretty devastating and worrisome report, I’ll do my best to keep my personal opinions to myself and strive to present you only facts and data.
Initial hospital costs: Using hospital data from 2016 and 2017—the most recent that were available—GAO estimated that the initial hospital costs of firearm injuries were just over $1 billion annually. However, physician costs not captured in the data could add around 20 percent to that total.
GAO also found that each year there were about 30,000 inpatient stays and about 50,000 emergency department visits to initially treat firearm injuries, and that patients with Medicaid and other public coverage accounted for over 60% of the costs of this care.
First-year costs: Findings from studies on health care costs within the first year of hospital discharge after a firearm injury suggest that those costs can be significant. For example, studies estimating first-year hospital readmissions costs found that up to 16 percent of firearm injury survivors with an initial inpatient stay were readmitted at least once for their injury, with average costs of $8,000 to $11,000 per patient.
Long-term costs: Less is known about the costs of health care for firearm injuries beyond the first year after hospital discharge. GAO identified studies that estimated lifetime costs of these injuries, but the estimates relied on data from over 20 years ago, making them no longer a reliable indicator of costs.
On the last finding of facts (data bullet point) —I’m going to state the obvious, over the three decades that I’ve been in DC the amount of money that the NRA (and I’m not even addressing the auxiliary organizations and affiliated special interest groups) has spent tens of millions of dollars lobbying lawmakers —I can personally tell you in the late 1980’s thru late 1990’s the NRA spent a mind numbing amount in lobbying with one laser focused goal - Kill the CDC data collection of injuries and deaths related to Guns. 23
The Dickey Amendment
…forever enshrined by the ocean of tears from tens of thousands of Americans who have cried when a loved one was killed by a gun…
“none of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be used to advocate or promote gun control.”
In 2011, Congress extended this restrictive language (of the Dickey Amendment) to other Federal health agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH). These actions was Congress doing the NRA’s bidding and it cemented a devastating and .chilling effect, which significantly curtailing the amount of gun violence research that has been performed at the federal level.
Additional Reading Resources 20 year impact the Dickey Amendment has caused:
If you are so inclined below I have embedded additional reading resources and reports because I think it’s important that you have actual facts before we dissect the newly publicly released GAO Report. I like to be thorough and I trust my readers with access to research and original documents”
In 2013, shortly after one of the saddest days that I can recall - I mean if the horrific death of twenty first graders (ages 6 & 7 years old) and six adults wasn’t enough for Congress to pull their heads out - then one might have overlooked this 2013 JAMA article (I uploaded the 3 page letter to Scribd because it’s behind a paywall and/or requires an account creation to pull down the PDF)
If funding for research on gun violence were comparable to spending for research on other leading causes of death, such as liver disease or high blood pressure, it would have received $1.4 billion from 2004 to 2015. Instead, federal agencies only provided $22 million in funding for research on gun violence during that period—almost 64 times less.
I know this because what do you think the catalyst was for me to resign from the NRA? It was largely do to their insane and aggressive lobbying to prevent the CDC and ANY federal funds used to research gun related deaths and injuries. The last straw was their Eddie the Eagle program —full indoctrination of children. I hated myself that it took me nine months to resign. I hated myself for accepting a job. I started out as a temporary worker in their call center. After 60+days they made me a full time job offer in their grassroots nerve center. About 90 days later they moved me to their lobbying group. I returned my lifetimes NRA membership because of Sandy Hook. To this day I still enjoy shooting but I can not in good conscious ever align myself with the NRA. They are a terrorist organization. They traffic in emotional terrorism and “otherism” —in the decades of the NRA’s (feigned) mantra “they are coming to take your guns—so send us money because we will fight for you” - below are a few ATF Reports
“All federally licensed manufacturers of firearms and destructive devices (Federal Firearms License types 07 and 10) are required to submit a production report of manufacturing and export activity to ATF by April 1 of each year”
This is sobering and not in a good way - the cost of gun violence also disproportionately impacts communities of color. Deep down inside you know that’s the truth.
…survivors often face barriers to receiving needed care…
Clinical experts GAO met with described a wide range in both physical and behavioral health care needs for firearm injury survivors after hospital discharge, with some survivors needing lifelong care. These experts also told GAO that survivors often face barriers to receiving needed care, such as being denied care when it is not covered by their insurance. While not receiving needed services may minimize costs initially, the consequences of unmet health needs for firearm injury survivors may ultimately result in greater costs.
Like I said, those of us in DC know when it comes to the GAO report(s), always and I mean always read the Appendices because that’s where the data, agency responses and other info graphics are
We found that the initial hospital costs of firearm injuries were largely driven by inpatient stays, which accounted for over 90 percent of the annual total hospital costs for firearm injuries in 2016 and 2017. However, in terms of prevalence, firearm injuries where patients received ED-only treatment were more common, with about 50,000 such visits per year, compared with about 30,000 inpatient stays annually.
Our analysis also suggests that, while firearm injuries constitute a small proportion of overall hospital costs—less than 1 percent over the 2-year period we studied—per patient, these injuries are relatively expensive to treat compared with other types of injuries or conditions. For example, we found that in 2016 and 2017, the average cost of initial treatment for firearm injury patients—whether ED-only or inpatient care—was more than twice the average cost of treating other patients in the hospital.
The percentage differential is stunning because generally speaking firearm related injuries account for a tiny percentage of care but the cost are astronomical. I think one could make a factual argument that bullets cause extreme carnage and I would be curious to see the Trauma patient care and compare that to the “regular” functions of both in-patient and ED/ER visits.
…looked at the anatomic location of injuries, injuries to multiple body regions accounted for an estimated 48 percent of annual costs for inpatient stays in 2016 and 2017, but only 5 percent of ED-only costs.
Conversely, external injuries (i.e., those that affected the skin, but did not injure any underlying structures, such as internal organs) accounted for 3% of annual inpatient costs, but an estimated 60% of ED-only costs.
Patients with Medicaid Coverage Accounted for Half of the Initial Hospital Costs of Firearm Injuries…
Even I can admit I didn’t think Medicaid Coverage was this high but it makes sense because looking at the demographics and socioeconomic data —that being gun violence consistently and disproportionately impacts people of color (wait for it -the data is in the report). And based on the geographical data it also aligns with the disproportionate impact…
estimated that patients with Medicaid coverage accounted for 50% of the approximately $1 billion in initial hospital costs of firearm injuries each year in 2016 and 2017, with the share being larger for inpatient stays compared with ED-only visits. For inpatient stays, patients with Medicaid accounted for more stays than patients with other coverage and generally had higher average costs, both of which affected Medicaid’s share of total costs.
Patients with other public coverage—including Medicare—accounted for an estimated 13% of total annual costs. In addition, individuals not covered by insurance (self-pay) accounted for 16% of total annual costs. To the extent these individuals do not pay for their care, Medicare or Medicaid uncompensated care payments may offset some of the hospitals’ costs
Geographic (dis)Proportionality
Go figure that the South where Guns and God literally compete with each other -and for the sake of me beating up on my in-laws home state, I’m going to refrain from saying the obvious. Should you be inclined check out the near real-time data from Gun-Violence-Archive
Firearm injuries were also disproportionately concentrated in the South. For example, from 2016 through 2017, almost half of all initial inpatient stays for firearm injuries were located in the South, and the region accounted for roughly the same percentage of the costs for this care.The South accounted for 38 percent of the U.S. population during the same period.
Look it’s one thing to make a public prognosticator or espouse “things” but then intentionally withhold documents —however I do think my track record is if I say something in public —there’s a very strong chance I have the files. I now refer you to page 41 of the newly publicly released GAO Report. When I said that gun violence disproportionately impacts people of color, I need to be more specific —the impact on the African American community is just jaw dropping…
Also the GAO Report continually referenced data from the National Trauma Data Bank (NTDB), this link will take you to their entire, datasets (2004 thru 2016)
We chose to categorize severity based on categories used by the American College of Surgeons in its National Trauma Databank annual reports: 1-8 for minor injuries, 9-15 for moderate, 16-24 for severe, and 25-75 for very severe injuries. In addition to the mapping tables…
DOJ-FOIA Digital Library Gun Lobby
Also because I’m mindful that my articles tend to pack files like a can of sardines - I almost always try to leave a present for my readers to managed to make it to the end of my article - your “reward” via this DOJ-FOIA Library (found here) of 106+pages of the NRA and other gun lobby groups lobbying the Department of Justice. I’d argue providing “input” isn’t sending communications to the DOJ a laundry list of “asks” that are entirely political. I mean why would the NRA and their affiliates like Crime Prevention Research Center
Because they are registered to vote (or have a driver’s license), illegal aliens are called for jury duty. I recently got called for jury duty, and I witnessed a significant number who were excused from serving because they were US citizens, though I have no idea about how many were there for different reasons.
James P. Holland, Federal Liaison National Rifle Association April 2017 email directly to (then) U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger EDVA-NSD (who announced his resignation on January 5, 2021) re “rap back"
Lost Class Part 1..
Part 2 John Lott
Part 3
Summation and a few after thoughts
I hope that this article at least provided you with factual answers to questions you you might have. However, I failed to check my emotions while reading, writing, editing and so on and so forth. It seemed beneficial to share a tiny bit of, my history with the NRA.
The bottom line is the NRA and their affiliated “gun advocacy” groups successful and protracted disinformation campaigns. For Example; “the left is coming to your house to take your guns” or “your second amendment rights are under siege” or “guns save lives”…it is all part of a well choreographed and funded campaign to condition ultra conservative guns owners to live in a constant state of fear because of “big government and the radical left” —the truth is for years the NRA has squandered tens of millions of their members money. Gun sales have sky rocketed and so have gun related deaths.
And lastly it is long past time for Congress to act…if president Trump can declare a “national emergency” because of the “tsunami of brown people flooding in to our Country” and then use that as justification to purloin DOD funds 4(cough see anti-commandeering act 56 and Impoundment Control Act 7 ) —to wit SCOTUS affirmed POTUS’ authority to do so —then it is reasonable for the Biden Administration to do the same. So in some respects #ThanksTrump for establishing a “new” legal precedence of what’s a National Emergency and then misappropriating the appropriations intended for the DOD for Trump’s stupid boarder wall. Archive link to prove the authenticity of his December 2018 tweet
(Separation of branches something something -Power of the Purse and the Power of the Sword which our founding fathers deliberately choose to separate the powers of the government.
—slowly backs away from the soap box and sprints to my next meeting while shoving a sandwich in my mouth. Wait are you telling me that this isn’t how most people spend their lunch break …damnit —Filey
In the past I’ve taught my readers/followers how to obtain public information. In New York State they have a nified” system and if exceptionally easy to find Court documents from various NYS cases - but let’s do this one more time
Step 5 - don’t ask me if you can donate to my cost - the NYS is FREE so there’s no need to make such a generous and sweet offer. I just want my readers to have access to public documents and not have to pay for it - information is valuable
1996 NRA & CDC —>”elimination of the center that had funded the study, the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention. The center survived, but Congress included language that reads word for word what NRA lobbyist and lobbying wanted 1996 Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Bill…
See Office of Management and Budget—Withholding of Ukraine Security Assistance B-331564 published Jan 16, 2020 https://www.gao.gov/assets/b-331564.pdf -last accessed July 14, 2021
Update on Decision regarding Border Wall Pause and the Impoundment Control Act B-333110 publicly released Jun 02, 2021 update on GAO's legal decision on whether the border wall pause violates the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (ICA) https://www.gao.gov/assets/b-333110.pdf -last accessed July 14, 2021
Impoundment Control Act--Withholding of Funds through Their Date of Expiration GAO B-330330 publicly released on Dec 10, 2018 - https://www.gao.gov/assets/b-330330.pdf —last visited July 14, 2021
If you managed to make it all the way to the end of this long article- your reading is rewarded because I found (via the DOJ-Digital Library) a 104 page FOIA’d document that shows just how many meetings and hand-in-glove communications between the Office of Attorney General at Main Justice and then uploaded the redlined FOIA documents to Scribd - research man - just show me the underlying documents
These tweets were in direct response to that NRA tweet the medical community quickly and devastatingly clapped back #ThisIsMyLane <—that will take you to the countless medical professionals tweets and showing us what they see everyday and the carnage guns cause and these men/women in the medical community’s priority is save a life.
I only worked ER during my nursing school rotations so didn’t really get much GSW experience prior to working. After working in CDCR I got more than my fair share... officers forced to fire after multiple vocal warnings, followed by warning shots from rubber rounds.
They were obligated to use lethal force to break up assaults by gang members who’d been ordered to kill another inmate. It was traumatizing for the officers who had to use deadly force to save another inmates life, as well as for medical staff who had to respond to the scene to try and save the life of the aggressor who’d been shot.
Such a good piece, Filey. 🏆
I love to shoot, too btw. But I saw this shit coming in the late 90’s. LE/Cops got scared because of all the crime on the streets. They started buying off-duty weapons and getting concealed carry permits. Criminals were killing cops for the helluva of it.
God bless Joe for tackling this problem head on. I just pray his health & vitality hold up and he can do another four years. I want Kamala to have everything going her way when she runs for VP but I’m not sure Joe can offer her a soft landing as soon as 2024, ya know?
I’m encouraged by Anne Milgram heading DEA, though. She’ll bring her Moneyball magic and fix this shit like she did in Camden.
If you managed to make it all the way to the end of this long article- your reading is rewarded because I found (via the DOJ-Digital Library) a 104 page FOIA’d document that shows just how many meetings and hand-in-glove communications between the Office of Attorney General at Main Justice and then uploaded the redlined FOIA documents to Scribd - research man - just show me the underlying documents
https://www.scribd.com/document/515963735/DOJ-Gun-Lobby-Communications-FOIA-d-2019
Reading your article now.... this really hit me:
These tweets were in direct response to that NRA tweet the medical community quickly and devastatingly clapped back #ThisIsMyLane <—that will take you to the countless medical professionals tweets and showing us what they see everyday and the carnage guns cause and these men/women in the medical community’s priority is save a life.
I only worked ER during my nursing school rotations so didn’t really get much GSW experience prior to working. After working in CDCR I got more than my fair share... officers forced to fire after multiple vocal warnings, followed by warning shots from rubber rounds.
They were obligated to use lethal force to break up assaults by gang members who’d been ordered to kill another inmate. It was traumatizing for the officers who had to use deadly force to save another inmates life, as well as for medical staff who had to respond to the scene to try and save the life of the aggressor who’d been shot.
Such a good piece, Filey. 🏆
I love to shoot, too btw. But I saw this shit coming in the late 90’s. LE/Cops got scared because of all the crime on the streets. They started buying off-duty weapons and getting concealed carry permits. Criminals were killing cops for the helluva of it.
God bless Joe for tackling this problem head on. I just pray his health & vitality hold up and he can do another four years. I want Kamala to have everything going her way when she runs for VP but I’m not sure Joe can offer her a soft landing as soon as 2024, ya know?
I’m encouraged by Anne Milgram heading DEA, though. She’ll bring her Moneyball magic and fix this shit like she did in Camden.
Sorry I’m rambling... 🥰🥰🥰