If you’re familiar with the gun violence prevention movement, you’ve probably heard about the Dickey Amendment. There are no similar blockers to getting the CDC to study golf violence - but they don’t.

Blunt objects like golf clubs are used in 8% of violent crimes. For comparison, assault rifles are only used in 1% of violent crimes. That’s according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting database.

In 2019, blunt objects like golf clubs were used in more instances of Aggravated Assault than all firearms. And the number of assaults keeps going up.

But the CDC doesn’t fund studies for this type of violence - instead they actively promote golf in youth-focused programs. The CDC won’t focus on golf violence because they are part of golf culture themselves.

We know that has to change, and we plan to change it. We know it won’t be easy, but we have a roadmap to follow.

Believe it or not, the federal government used to promote other dangerous hobbies to our youth. In 1903, Congress created the Civilian Marksmanship Program to promote guns in youth programs across the country! It has only been through the work of generations of gun violence prevention activism that we have finally been able to get these dangerous weapons out of our schools.

We know that it will take the same kind of generational change to ban golf, but that starts with getting the CDC to understand and study the impact of golf violence now.