National Gun Violence Research Act of 2025
HB5622, titled the National Gun Violence Research Act of 2025, would create a coordinated federal research program focused on the nature, causes, consequences, and prevention of gun-related violence, suicide, unintentional injury, and death. The bill directs the President, through the Office of Science and Technology Policy, to establish a National Gun Violence Research Program and an interagency working group to coordinate research priorities, planning, and implementation across federal agencies.
The bill also authorizes a set of agency-specific research activities. It would allow the National Science Foundation, NIH, CDC, the National Institute of Justice, and other agencies to award grants, establish research centers, train researchers, and support multidisciplinary studies on gun violence. In addition, it directs the Department of Justice and ATF to develop protocols for researcher access to gun trace data and to begin sharing certain trace and firearms-trace-system information under those protocols. The bill further instructs NIST to promote voluntary consensus gun safety technical standards, while expressly stating that it does not authorize mandatory gun safety regulation.
The bill would change federal law and appropriations restrictions by repealing or narrowing several long-standing appropriations riders that limited federal gun-violence research and by clarifying that HHS funds may be used for such research. It would create a new federal research structure, authorize interagency coordination, and expand access to trace data for researchers. The measure also authorizes appropriations for FY 2026 through FY 2031, including funding for OSTP coordination, NSF research grants and centers, HHS research, DOJ research and trace-data sharing, and NIST standards-related work.
Based on the bill text, the measure is framed as a public-health and research initiative rather than a gun-control bill, and its findings emphasize that research does not constitute advocacy for or against gun regulation. No committee transcripts or recorded votes were provided, so there is no documented floor or committee sentiment in the supplied materials. The overall tone of the bill itself is supportive of expanded federal research, data access, and coordination to reduce gun violence.
The main points of contention are likely to be the repeal of appropriations restrictions that historically limited federal gun-violence research, and the requirement that ATF share trace data with researchers. Supporters would view these provisions as necessary to improve evidence-based policy and public health responses, while opponents may see them as a step toward gun regulation or as a privacy, law-enforcement, or administrative burden concern. The bill attempts to address one likely objection by stating that NIST may only promote voluntary consensus standards and may not establish or enforce mandatory gun safety standards.