The New York chapters of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, both part of Everytown for Gun Safety’s grassroots networks, released the following statement applauding the New York legislature for their support of gun violence prevention funding, including more than $200 million in funding for gun violence prevention programming. This action comes after New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced her executive budget plan in January. The one house budget proposals will now serve as a basis of negotiation for the final budget, along with Gov. Hochul’s plan. The budget agreement must be reached by April 1.
“Our lawmakers are fully committed to the task of ending gun violence in our state, and their budget priorities reaffirm that strongly,” said Jana Nesbitt Gale, a volunteer with the New York chapter of Moms Demand Action. “This large investment would make major inroads in addressing gun violence in communities across the state. We are grateful to Leader Stewart Cousins, Speaker Heastie and the entire legislature for joining Governor Hochul in this commitment to saving lives.”
The Assembly budget added an additional $19 Million to what’s included in the Governor’s proposal to be used for community safety initiatives including, SNUG, a street outreach program, Gun Involved Violence Elimination Initiative (GIVE), and Cure Violence. The Senate proposal included an additional $40 Million which will in part support gun violence prevention programs, gang and crime reduction strategies managed by local governments, and community-based not-for-profit service providers. The Senate also specified dedicated funding for SNUG programs in Rochester, Kingston, Middletown, New Rochelle, and Queens, communities hit hard by gun violence.
Both chambers accepted the Governor’s original proposed investment for gun violence prevention including:
- $24.9 million in increased funding to expand hospital-based and street outreach programs to touch all corners of the state. It will facilitate the piloting of several new initiatives which provide wrap-around services for youth, job-readiness and work-placement training.
- $20 million in new funding to support the people and places that have been most impacted by the spike in gun violence. This will allow the deployment of innovative community empowerment and crime-reduction programming that will facilitate the repairing and rebuilding communities impacted by gun-related crime.
- $50 million in funding for a grant program to meet the needs of communities most impacted by gun violence by supporting capital investments related to innovative crime-reduction strategies.
- $350,000 in funding to triple the state’s gun violence intelligence resources by staffing the New York State Intelligence Center (NYSIC) with a team of analysts necessary to process and investigate crime guns across the state.
- $500,000 to create the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, under the Department of Health. Data collected on gun violence will be used by the Office of Gun Violence Prevention to track emerging gun violence hotspots and deploy resources to those areas that need it most.
In an average year in New York, 870 people die by guns and an additional 2,607 people are wounded. Gun violence costs New York $5.9 billion each year, of which $321.0 million is paid by taxpayers. More information on gun violence in New York is available here.
