Katie Porter: “145,000 people die each year from injuries in our society, including those sustained in motor vehicle crashes, fires…”

“145,000 people die each year from injuries in our society, including those sustained in motor vehicle crashes, fires, drownings, falls, poisonings, suicide, and homicide. Injury is the leading cause of death and disability for our Nation's children and young adults. Those injuries cost our country more than $224 billion a year in direct medical care and rehabilitation as well as lost wages and productivity. That is an increase of 42 percent in the last decade alone. Is injury a proper subject for our Centers for Disease Control and Prevention? Of course it is. Only $2.6 million of $46.3 million goes to gun-related research. It also goes for car crashes. What do they examine when they look at car crashes? They look at how the cars are equipped, how the cars are used, how the drivers are trained. Should we not also look at the same injury result regarding guns? Of course we should do that. Of course, we should study how we can make society safer and how we can reduce injuries. The CDC work on firearms injuries is not duplicated anywhere else in the Government.”