What difference are those studies going to make? If Columbia University in the City of New York discovers you can use guns to kill people, are voters suddenly going to go "oh, well then!"
Funding of gun studies means we can make arguments backed up by data instead of partisan bickering. Calls to arm teachers in classrooms or mandate trigger locks on guns have real world effects, and both sides think they're right about it. Funding for studies of specific actions and policies help us as a society make more informed decisions.
More info: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5993411/
Examples:
- Are there correlations between outcomes and specific brands, configurations, or other attributes of firearm?
- Are there correlations between sales at specific outlets and outcomes?
- Is age and/or experience correlated with negative outcomes?
The assumption is that studying this would negatively impact gun ownership. I don't think that's true. Consider that anti-gun rhetoric over the .50 Barrett rifle. You may find that it's really a collector's item that isn't associated with crime. I'm sure there are many examples similar to this, that are blocked by black and white opinion on the matter, fueled by mutual ignorance.