Stopping gun violence starts with intervention. Connecting people most at risk of violence with the mental healthcare, drug treatment, job training, and housing assistance they need can break this cycle and make us all safer.
Cities across the country—from Detroit to Indianapolis and Chicago, to Baltimore and San Antonio, to Boston and Buffalo—have reduced crime with similar strategies that stop violence and prevent crimes before they happen instead of responding after.
The District needs its own comprehensive gun violence reduction plan to bring safety, security, and stability across all parts of D.C.
This kind of comprehensive violence reduction plan was sent to Mayor Bowser in May of 2022, but it was never implemented. However, it’s not too late. It can still work.
The plan would create an ecosystem of wraparound services and supports that – when administered together – are most effective in stopping violence, responding to crises, and preventing crime over the long term.
Let’s decide that investing in the community and interrupting violence will make DC safer for all of us.
About The Comprehensive Gun Violence Reduction Plan
A comprehensive gun violence reduction plan uses data to identify the people at highest risk of gun violence, typically young adults, and connects them with solutions in the community – like job training, education classes, housing assistance, and addiction or mental health treatment – that are designed to reduce their likelihood of becoming victims of or committing gun violence.
Prevention services are offered through local, community-based organizations that provide education classes, job training, housing assistance, or mental health treatment.
This proven solution has worked to reduce violence in other cities across the country, puts people on a pathway to stability, and reduces both homicides and the need for excessive arrests.
DC Residents Want a Comprehensive Violence Reduction Plan
Recent research shows a strong majority of DC residents support a more comprehensive gun violence-reduction plan, and a supermajority want the Mayor to prioritize such a plan.
84 percent of District residents support the gun violence reduction plan that has been delivered to the Mayor.
District residents overwhelmingly support the policies in the gun violence reduction plan. Each component of the plan has the support of at least 75 percent of DC residents, with some elements gaining as high as 90 percent support.
More than 9 in 10 residents want the Mayor to prioritize the gun violence reduction plan.
