Researcher Gives $1-Million to His Own Work on Gun Violence

A University of California professor of emergency medicine has put $1.1-million of his own money into maintaining his studies of firearms violence, a research area for which Congress has restricted federal aid, ProPublica reports.

In an interview with the nonprofit news site, Garen Wintemute, head of the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis, details how he began donating his own funds after the Centers for Disease Control ended funding for his studies on risk factors for criminal activity among legal gun buyers.

“There came a point when I decided that the work we do is as important as the work of the other nonprofits to which I gave donations. I decided, I’m going to keep the lights on,” said Dr. Wintemute, who cited stock gifts from his father and frugal living on an emergency-room doctor’s salary as the wellspring of his donations. He said he has not accepted funding from advocacy groups on either side of the gun debate.