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The Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, Community Justice Reform Coalition, and PICO National Network just released an exciting new report with important recommendations on preventing gun death.
Titled “Investing in Intervention: The Critical Role of State-Level Support in Breaking the Cycle of Urban Gun Violence,” the report looks at violence intervention programs in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York that have helped to dramatically reduce gun homicide rates in those states.
Underlying the programs are three key strategies:
- Group Violence Intervention. A carrot-and-stick approach that involves reaching out to high-risk community members with incentives such as access to social services, education, and job training opportunities, while promising swift action from law enforcement if killings continue.
- The Cure Violence model developed in Chicago, which was the subject of the award-winning documentary “The Interrupters.”
- Hospital-based Violence Intervention Programs. We know that a history of violent injury is a strong risk factor for future violence. HVIP programs offer teachable moments to young people hospitalized with gunshot injuries.
These programs are noncontroversial in state legislatures and cost-effective, achieving significant drops in gun homicide rates with minimal investment. There is no reason they should not be modeled in every state.
Please take a look at the “Investing in Intervention” report and share it with one or more of your state legislators along with the following message (feel free to personalize):
As your constituent, I wanted to make sure you saw this new report from the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, PICO, and the Community Justice Reform Coalition, titled “Investing in Intervention.” It lays out some really exciting evidence-based strategies to reduce gun homicide rates in urban communities. The programs described in the report have achieved maximum results with minimal investment. They are noncontroversial because they don’t involve firearms regulation. They empower members of the community by relying on them to take the lead. During the upcoming session, I would like you to introduce or co-sponsor a bill that would implement one or more of the violence intervention strategies described in the “Investing in Intervention” report. This is something you can move forward with immediately that would prevent the loss of many lives.
http://lawcenter.giffords.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Investing-in-Intervention-12-18-17.pdf
If you need to find out who your state legislators are, click here:
https://openstates.org/find_your_legislator/
Once you have shared the report with a state legislator, click the orange banner below to report taking action!