The Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2022 Would Devote $200 Million to a New Community Violence Intervention Program, $50 Million to Fund Critical Gun Violence Research, Increase ATF Funding, Background Checks and More
This Announcement Follows Big Victories for Gun Safety from the Biden-Harris Administration, From Nomination of David Chipman as ATF Director, to Prioritization of Community Violence Intervention Funding in the President’s American Jobs Plan, to Life-Saving Executive Actions Including Elimination of Market for Ghost Guns.
WASHINGTON –– Today, Everytown for Gun Safety and its grassroots networks, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, released the following statements after President Joe Biden released his Fiscal Year 2022 budget proposal, which includes hundreds of millions of dollars designed to address gun violence and save lives.
“President Biden and Vice President Harris ran as the strongest gun safety ticket in history, and today’s budget is further proof that they are governing like it,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “These proposed investments in community violence intervention programs, the ATF, gun violence research, and more will save countless lives, and we urge Congress to enact it.”
“Gun violence is an epidemic in this country and with this budget, President Biden is showing he will continue to tackle it head on with all the tools at his disposal,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action. “Survivors and grassroots volunteers have been fighting for this type of serious funding to address gun violence for years. This budget will save lives, particularly in the primarily Black and Latinx cities and communities that bear the brunt of America’s gun violence crisis.”
This budget, if enacted, would represent a big step for gun safety that will save lives, and –– in conjunction with the administration’s executive actions –– is just the beginning of the President’s plan to address gun violence in America.
The President’s budget for FY 2022 would address gun violence in several ways, including:
- Requesting $200 million for a new Community Violence Intervention initiative to implement evidence-based community violence interventions locally that will address gun violence in cities. The proposed funding would be divided between the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) with the expectation of coordination between the agencies.
- Requesting an increase in funding for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to $1.6 billion –– a five percent increase over FY 2021.
- Requesting $50 million for firearm violence prevention research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) –– double the amount appropriated in FY 2021. A fact sheet on why funding gun violence research matters is available here.
- Requesting funding for DOJ to support existing programs to improve the background check systems.
- Requesting funds for DOJ to reinvigorate federal civil rights enforcement and invest in community policing, police reform, and other efforts to address systemic inequities.
This is the strongest gun safety administration in history, as evidenced by President Biden’s historic executive actions to address gun violence, his long record of taking on the NRA and passing life-saving laws, Vice President Kamala Harris’ years of gun safety advocacy, and the unmatched gun sense cabinet they have built in recent months. Today’s budget release follows ATF Director nominee David Chipman’s confirmation hearing in the Senate, several Senate hearings on gun violence prevention, and a House hearing and passage of several pieces of gun safety legislation—all while bipartisan conversations continue in the U.S. Senate on life-saving background check legislation.