The National Institutes of Health (NIH) says its mission is to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability through supporting and conducting scientific research.
But the Gun Owners of America (GOA) wants the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to investigate the federal agency, claiming severan NIH grants are in direct violation of the Dickey Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal funds to advocate or promote gun control.
In 1996, the Dickey Amendment was a provision in federal spending bills that prohibits federal funds from being used to “advocate or promote gun control.”
On X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, the GOA said that those grants, which total millions of dollars, include funding for studies and programs that “clearly push a gun control agenda.”
Studies and programs listed by GOA include:
$3.6M for “firearm retirement” for senior citizens
$1.2M for “check-ins” on “guns at home”
$2.1M to study “firearm possession” by Asian Americans
$1.1M on “gun ownership and risk”
$650K on “firearm prohibitions and relinquishment”
$333K to “promote effective” gun confiscation laws and wait periods
$428K to examine how “crime reports… reinforce racist stereotypes”
$518K on “firearm storage” and confiscation laws
$490K to compare states’ “gun policies”
$349K to assess whether “firearm laws reduce mortality”
$126K on “Black Americans’ elevated gun violence exposure”
Aidan Johnston, GOA’s Director of Federal Affairs, says these grants are illegal grants, and DOGE needs to intervene and look at how the federal government continues to circumvent restrictions in order to impose gun control.
“Hey, DOGE, these illegal NIH grants need to be canceled ASAP. These grants violate the Dickey Amendment, which says that CDC and NIH money may not be used “to advocate or promote gun control,” said GOA.
