The American Medical Association has adopted a policy labeling gun violence a "public health crisis" in the U.S., and will work to overturn a federal ban on research into the topic by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NPR reported.

AMA is holding its annual meeting in Chicago this week. Gun violence is just one of the health issues the association's members examined at the event, but it is one that has gained renewed prominence after a gunman killed 49 people at an Orlando nightclub over the weekend.

Congress, at the urging of the National Rifle Association, has prohibited CDC from researching gun violence out of fear the data would be used to support the passage of restrictive gun laws. But the agency has gathered numbers showing there were as many firearm deaths in 2013 as there were deaths by traffic accidents.

"Even as America faces a crisis unrivaled in any other developed country, the Congress prohibits the CDC from conducting the very research that would help us understand the problems associated with gun violence and determine how to reduce the high rate of firearm-related deaths and injuries," AMA President Steven Stack said in a statement.

AMA has supported gun control since the 1980s, according to NPR. In 2013, the association called the uncontrolled ownership and use of firearms "a serious threat to public health."

AMA is not the only medical group that has called for ending the research ban. The American Academy of Pediatrics said in a recent state the ban has had a "chilling effect and resulted in a dearth of research on this critical topic." http://n.pr/1ZRcZ4q

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