The CDC was never explicitly banned from researching gun violence, though the Dickey Amendment "outlawed spending tax dollars on gun control advocacy", which made it difficult to determine what sorts of research might be allowed. This was recently clarified to explicitly allow gun violence research, though that still isn't funded.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/0...

I think that would be a great first step. For it to be acceptable it will need to be very careful to ensure the privacy of gun owners.

While I’m all for unbiased, scientific research on gun violence, I have little confidence that it won’t just become the liberal’s version of climate change denial.