Democratic Governor Phil Murphy has proposed slashing $1 million from the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center — a cut that would wipe out a third of the center’s budget and cripple its operations, officials say.
Based at Rutgers University, the center is one of only a handful of state-funded gun violence research hubs in the country. Its executive director, Michael Anestis, said the proposed cut would eliminate the center’s ability to fund outside researchers and collect data on gun-related topics like safe storage and usage — work that helps illuminate potential solutions to America’s gun violence epidemic.
“We are the only research center out there that not only conducts research, but is a funding agency,” Anestis told The Trace. “We will not be able to do that next year with a $1 million cut.”
The proposal coincides with a Trump administration effort to terminate billions in research contracts and delay review panels required to approve federally funded studies. Meanwhile, researchers say widespread layoffs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are likely to hamstring that agency, which oversees roughly half of the federal government’s gun violence research spending and data collection.
Researchers and gun violence prevention advocates had hoped state research hubs like New Jersey’s, though few in number, would serve as a fallback in the absence of federal dollars and play a bigger role in funding going forward.
“This would seem like a moment when we would step up and fill the needs that are being increased every day with each federal action,” Anestis said. “A $1 million cut to our budget not only won’t let us lead; it won’t let us continue to be what we’ve been.”
Murphy’s office has blamed the proposed cut on economic uncertainty and a difficult budget climate. Nearly $31 billion in federal funds flow to health care, education, and infrastructure in New Jersey, but with the Trump administration moving to slash spending, the state is bracing for reduced aid.
While New Jersey lawmakers could reject his proposal, the move has raised doubts about whether states will pick up the tab for gun violence research as federal support evaporates.
Tyler Jones, a spokesperson for the governor, said in a statement that the proposed cut to the research center was part of a broader set of reductions to discretionary programs to reflect the state’s “capacity for spending in a tighter fiscal environment.” Still, Jones said the governor has taken action and passed laws to help keep New Jerseyans safer from gun violence. “We understand the importance of research and data collection to measure the effectiveness of each approach.”
Murphy’s budget plan includes a $6 billion surplus that advocates say could be tapped to continue supporting the center, but the governor, whose term ends in 2026, has said he wants his successor to inherit a state on a sound fiscal footing.
The only state gun violence research center with a budget comparable to New Jersey’s is at the University of California, Davis. The California Firearm Violence Research Center receives state funding to the tune of $3 million annually, and its director, Dr. Garen Wintemute, doesn’t expect that to change. “The decision to terminate federal funding in our field is calamitous,” Wintemute said. “I think for the foreseeable future, we’re going to be keeping the flame alive.”
At least two other states — Washington and New York — provide funding for gun violence research centers at the University of Washington and the State University of New York, respectively, though their budgets are smaller.
It wasn’t until 2019 that Congress began providing $25 million per year in federal funding for gun violence research. While the new funding has been a boost for the field, it’s still modest, leaving room for states to play a bigger role.
“It is very small in comparison to the burden of the problem,” said Cassandra Crifasi, co-director of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Gun Violence Solutions. “Even relatively modest investments by states could equal or exceed what we have seen federally. Even if every state only invested one million dollars a year, that’s twice as much as what we had.”
Johns Hopkins, the University of Michigan, and the University of Colorado, among others, have research centers that produce dozens of studies every year. However, they receive most of their funding from federal grants — which may disappear — or from private donors and the university itself, both of which often include spending limitations not typically attached to direct state support.
In New Jersey, the proposed cut represents a stark reversal. State lawmakers established the research center in 2018 with Murphy’s backing. Just the second institution of its kind, it sought to fill a knowledge gap left by decades of federal inaction and the gun industry’s opposition to studying the effects of its products.
Lawmakers are expected to consider Murphy’s budget plan in the coming weeks. State Senator Troy Singleton, who chairs the New Jersey Senate Democratic caucus and is a longtime supporter of the center, said he would fight to save its funding during budget negotiations, which are slated to ramp up in May. Lawmakers must approve a final spending package by July 1.
“Leadership on gun violence prevention really means investing in research and data and community-based solutions,” Singleton said. “Frankly, none of that is possible without institutions like the Gun Violence Research Center. Without it, we’re flying blind.”
A spokesperson for New Jersey Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, a Democrat, said appropriators had just begun reviewing the governor’s budget. “While it is too early to say what the final budget will look like, we will be asking the Administration directly about the Governor’s funding allocation for the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center,” he said in an email.
The New Jersey center has produced nationally relevant research and surveys on topics like the rarity of people using guns in self-defense and the effects of gun violence on rates of depression. It has also worked to help community violence intervention programs, including Newark’s Community Street Team, better disrupt shootings.
Anestis, the executive director, said the proposed cut would not only stymie research but also the center’s efforts to train the next generation of scientists, potentially causing long-term damage to the field.
“We can’t quite understand why, even in a difficult budget season like this, the governor would take a step like this,” Anestis said. “It’s so inconsistent with a record that has been so remarkably strong on this issue. It seems to echo the Trump administration’s disdain for science when we know that’s never been the stance of the administration here.”
