Studying gun violence but that would put real numbers to its impact on society which is something the NRA does not want. If we truly knew the entire scope of how much gun violence costs and impacts society we would have to act to reduce it the way we have done with many other aspects of society from transportation, food, weather, healthcare etc...

"Because the CDC funded the research, the NRA pushed Congress, in a 1996 omnibus bill, to state:

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.
The CDC broadly interpreted this as a bar on firearms research, with other federal funders following suit. This has had a chilling effect on gun research.

Ironically, the author of the amendment that cast this pall on firearm research, Congressman Jay Dickey, has since recanted, noting correctly in 2012 that “We won’t know the cause of gun violence until we look for it.”

Another excellent article linked from this one.

http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/six-snowballs-thrown-in-the-gun-control-debate-gopnik

Instead, our nation is locked into this discussion by citing personal experiences and arguing semantics. While the body count rises, the gun manufacturers bank their profits and gin up the fear.

Sucks if you're a citizen and a victim of gun violence. It's great if you're a manufacturer or a lobbyist: My god, how the money rolls in, rolls in, my god how the money rolls in.

of guns from people who hire lobbyists, who in turn buy politicians who ensure that we don't study it.

All those who assure us after each of our weekly massacres that they are "responsible gun owners" are the lynchpin of this system.

...right up to the moment when he or she isn't.