Forty-nine people were killed and 53 others injured in a shooting at a popular gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida early Sunday morning.

Police confirmed the horrific numbers on Sunday after taking control of the scene.

A 27-year- old singer – Christina Grimmie, who competed on the reality TV singing show “The Voice” – was also shot and killed in Florida following a show over the weekend.

These are the latest national examples of gun violence in the United States.

Just last week, a bipartisan group of 146 members of Congress called on leadership in the House of Representatives to lift the de-facto ban on federal gun violence research.

The effort to lift this ban is being led by North Carolina 4th District Congressman David Price.

Price spoke with WCHL in late 2015 about his work to end the ban on gun violence research. He said at the time that mass shootings draw the most attention but are only part of what needs to be studied. The bigger issue, Price said, is the “day-to-day toll” of gun violence.

“It’s pervasive all over our country,” Price said. “And most of the time it isn’t mass shootings. Most of the times it’s one or two victims at a time; whether it’s suicide or some kind of marital dispute or a child being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“There are just so many instances that cry out for attention and resolution.”

Price said at the time, “We have a range of proposals having to do with tightening up background checks so the wrong people don’t get guns and keeping these battlefield weapons off the street.”

Price said he felt the biggest step toward curbing gun violence would be to allow for researchers to look into why it is happening in the first place but that has not been allowed at the federal level for decades.

“One of the most absurd prohibitions we’ve been living with for a long time has been engineered by the [National Rifle Association] through the appropriations process in the Congress,” Price said. “And they have basically said the federal government, public health researchers, medical researchers, other researchers cannot deal with the question of gun violence.”

Price said the ban was implemented in the mid-90s.

“We research everything in the federal government,” Price added. “This is the only area I know where there’s an explicit Congressional prohibition against even looking at the question.”

Price said that he felt this was an example of a special-interest group – the NRA in this case – crafting policy that goes against public opinion.

“We’ve had over 20 moments of silence on the House floor in the last three years for victims of shootings,” Price said.

“It’s almost sacrilege to get up there and express all this sorrow but at the same time do absolutely nothing about it.”

Price warned against becoming numb to these shootings.

“We’re really – on a number of fronts in the Congress – moving to just, if nothing else, just shame our colleagues into addressing this,” Price said. “It is a national disgrace.”

Price said that the United States stands alone in terms of the volume of gun violence.

“I think anybody who looks at this has to say, ‘Why on earth would the Congress of the United States ban a whole area of public health research,’” Price said, “particularly one that is this relevant to the health and well-being of our people.”

Price sent out the following string of tweets on Monday: