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FIRST ON FOX: A group of House Republicans is asking Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to crack down on any remaining gun control efforts within his department, which they argue is in "direct violation of federal law."
"We write to you today to urge you to protect the Second Amendment from attacks by a partisan and weaponized Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and National Institutes of Health (NIH)—which became a dangerous threat to gun ownership under the Biden Administration," the letter led by Rep. Diana Harshbarger, R-Tenn., read.
Harshbarger's letter also demanded that Kennedy reverse a Biden-era policy declaring gun violence a "public health crisis."
"Treating firearm-related violent crime as a public health issue may start with a study about gun control but ends with tyranny," it said.
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House Republicans are urging Health Secretary Robert Kennedy to undo a Biden-era public health crisis on gun violence. (Getty Images)
Congress banned federal funding from being used to advocate for gun control in a 1996 spending bill, a measure called the Dickey Amendment. A 2018 spending bill softened that language somewhat, allowing for the CDC to research the causes of gun violence.
But the letter, which was signed by 15 House GOP lawmakers total, argued that the Biden administration went beyond what was allowable.
"[T]he Biden White House and gun control advocates censored self-defense statistics from the CDC website, statistics that would have helped explain the importance of the Second Amendment to our citizens," they wrote.
"Meanwhile, the Biden Administration also weaponized millions of dollars of research funding appropriated by Congress in good faith for ‘Firearm Injury and Mortality Prevention Research’ to promote gun control."
The letter is led by Rep. Diana Harshbarger, R-Tenn. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
The letter went on to point out several initiatives on gun control by the Biden administration's Health Department, including $428,000 to study "episodic crime reports" and depictions of violence that lead to victim blaming and "racist stereotypes."
It also highlighted $1.1 million to examine ties between "lawful gun ownership and risk," and hundreds of thousands of dollars targeting gun confiscation and other firearm policies in states like Michigan and California.
"Congress intended for the CDC and NIH to conduct research on medical procedures, practices, treatments, medicines, and therapies related to firearm injuries and recovery," the lawmakers wrote. "Instead, this funding has been weaponized to promote and advocate gun control in direct violation of federal law."
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They urged Kennedy to end any remaining funding that could be in violation of the Dickey Amendment and restore "censored" statistics on self-defense on the CDC website.
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The lawmakers also asked for a series of new studies, including on the effects of gun-free zones, the effects of a lack of widespread sound suppression technology, and "the current media coverage practices concerning mass public shootings, which a growing body of evidence suggests may increase the likelihood of future mass public murders."
Fox News Digital reached out to the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) for a response.
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