Rosenberg worked at the CDC for 20 years, where he was instrumental in founding the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC). He also served as the first permanent director of the NCIPC beginning in 1994. While there, he was responsible for overseeing
gun violence research at the CDC. His research included studying increases in the incidence of suicide. He publicly advocated for measures to control gun violence, emphasizing its
public health impact at a 1993 conference: "When you bring a gun into your home, you take on to yourself, your family and your kids a big health risk." The
National Rifle Association of America (NRA) responded to Rosenberg and others by claiming that the CDC was biased against guns, and lobbied to eliminate the NCIPC. NRA proponents have argued that the issue of gun violence should be treated solely as a law enforcement matter, not as a public health issue. In a complex arena of debate involving assessment of risk and regulation, Rosenberg is frequently referenced for comments in a
New York Times article in 1994, in which he was quoted as saying “We need to revolutionize the way we look at guns, like we did with cigarettes. It used to be that smoking was a glamour symbol, cool, sexy, macho. Now it is dirty, deadly and banned.” Enactment of the 1996
Dickey Amendment, the Congressional restriction which prevented the CDC from using its funding "to advocate or promote gun control," It also resulted in the ending of Rosenberg's position; he left the CDC in 1999 and joined the
Task Force for Global Health, of which he became president and CEO. He retired and became president emeritus of the Task Force for Global Health in 2016. Rosenberg continued to be highly critical of the Dickey Amendment, saying in 2012 that the
National Rifle Association of America (which lobbied Congress to enact this restriction) has "terrorized" the scientific community. He has also said this restriction has impaired researchers' ability to understand the problem of gun violence, saying in 2015 that “Because we don’t know what works, we as a country are left in a shouting match.” He also came to know and like Representative
Jay Dickey, who had sponsored the 1996 Dickey Amendment. In talking to each other, the two found common ground. Dickey regretted his role in blocking the CDC from researching gun violence, and Rosenberg saw preventing gun violence and protecting gun rights as compatible rather than exclusionary goals. Dickey and Rosenberg worked together to try to restore federal funding for research and to promote gun safety as a means towards public health. In 2017, Rosenberg was invited to gave the eulogy at Jay Dickey's funeral. In 2019, Rosenberg and Betty Dickey were part of a coalition that succeeded in persuading Congress to fund gun violence research. $25 million was split between the CDC and NIH for data collection sharing and analysis on gun violence. == Books ==