U.S. Congressional Initiative to Reduce Youth Violence

 

To:   Community Leaders, Violence Prevention Experts, Family Leaders, Education & Mental Health Leaders

 

From:  Kevin P. Dwyer, NCSP ekdwyer@verizon.net 301-229-8251

                        Co-Chair Board of Directors

                        Reaching Out to Others Together (ROOT, Inc.)

Initiative to Reduce Youth Violence

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus (and others) have agreed to draft legislation to establish substantial, long-term grants to urban areas to demonstrate that community-wide coordinated efforts to reduce the serious youth violence and homicide rate within those communities can work and should be sustained. 

 

This legislation is being proposed to be introduced almost immediately.  Congressional hearings will follow within the coming months.

ROOT, Inc. in cooperation with others has been requested to assist these Congressional Representatives in drafting this legislation.  We are trying to ensure that the legislation will focus on positive, resilience for children, youth and families and their communities.  We want to look at what communities need (and will endorse) to support the positive social-emotional growth and safety of its members.   We know that there are numerous small, caring violence prevention efforts within most communities whose effects may be greatly enhanced by coordination and planned resourcing.  We know some duplicate each other and some are ineffective but continue.  Community driven coordinated efforts can do better. The proposed title of the legislation is: Communities in Action (focusing on local control and grass-roots involvement).

 

Give us your ideas, your vision for what is needed in this legislation.  Focus on applied evidence-based practices for education, health, mental health, policing, justice, housing, work, public and private and non-governmental partners.  We will quickly pull these ideas together and present them to Congressional staff.  There are no guarantees regarding the outcome.  We are providing information that we hope will have the result of increasing community safety and viability and reducing homicides and youth violence.

 

DC MAYOR ADRIAN FENTY,  COUNCILMEMBER JIM GRAHAM BEGIN AGGRESSIVE AWARENESS CAMPAIGN TO ADDRESS GUN VIOLENCE

 

PRESS CONFERENCE ON FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 2007 ANNOUNCES ANTI-GUN VIOLENCE PROACTIVE CAMPAIGN

 

Mayor Adrian Fenty, Councilmember Jim Graham, Department of Health, AMERIGROUP, Washington Metro Area Transit Association (WMATA), and ROOT, Inc.

 

Danny Govan, 16 year old and mother, Sheila Govan, speaking for those victimized by gun violence.  The Govan family has had 10 members of its immediate family murdered as a result of gun violence in past years.

 

Victims of Gun Violence, MPD, USDOJ, DMH, DCPS, DYRS, EMS. Members of the Clergy, Community Organizations, and Concerned Citizens, Crisis Response Team, Homicide Liaison, youth, and members of the City Council.

 

What:  Public service announcing GUNS ASIDE poster on metro buses to begin proactive awareness campaign at efforts to reduce gun violence in the District of Columbia. 

 

Where: Steps of John Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20008.

 

When:  Friday, April 6, 2007, 10:30 AM. 

 

Why:  In January of 2006, the Guns Aside Resolution calling January Guns Aside month in the District of Columbia was introduced by the Ward 4 Councilmember Adrian Fenty and Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham and was unanimously approved by the City Council.  A press conference was held at the National Press Club declaring the District of Columbia was facing a public health crisis with escalating incidents of gun violence.  The city is even now still in crisis with incidents of gun violence seen on the news daily, read in our newspapers, as well as reported on list servs and blogs daily/  

 

The city itself declared a state of emergency in July of 2006.  Prior to that declaration, ROOT had its outreach workers circulating petitions throughout the District of Columbia for citizens to sign expressing their concerns about gun violence.  Over 8,000 petitions were signed by citizens young and old in the city prior to the city declaring the state of emergency.   

 

As of April 3, there have been 40 homicides in the District of Columbia.    6,412 individuals have been murdered in the District of Columbia from 1986 through 2005.  According to MPD statistics, robbery with a handgun is up 8% over 2006, and assault with a deadly weapon – handgun is up 5% over last year. 

 

Over the past several years, ROOT has conducted preliminary research on children that are impacted by gun violence and homicide and results have been astonishing.  Children from the 5^th to the 12^th grade are reporting that upwards of 90% know a family member or friend that has been victimized by gun violence, and upwards of 90% hear gunshots in their community

 

In a recent survey conducted among young women during an empowerment symposium at a high school in Ward 8, we found that 75% of the young women surveyed either had access or knew someone with access to guns. 

 

The prevalence of guns in the community are a concern to all.  The recent appellate court decision has created a great deal of controversy in the District of Columbia, when the District is trying to reduce the amount of guns not increase the numbers.

 

Media Contact: Clarke & Associates at 202-723-2200 or email at pclarkepr@aol.com 

 

FENTY TO APPEAL OVERTURNED GUN BAN IN FEDERAL COURT
By Gary Emerling - THE WASHINGTON TIMES

 

D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty said city officials on Monday will file a legal challenge to a federal appeals court decision that struck down the District's 30-year-old gun ban.

"There's enough illegal guns in the District of Columbia," Mr. Fenty said during a press conference yesterday at the John A. Wilson Building. "We don't need to add to those guns with legal guns, which would then become illegal as they move from one person to one person to the next, until someone is killed with them."

On March 9, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overturned a previous lower-court decision against six city residents who filed suit to keep guns for self-protection.

The panel ruled in a 2-1 decision that the right to bear arms as guaranteed in the Second Amendment applies to individuals and not only to militias.

The ruling overturned portions of D.C. law that prohibit residents from keeping firearms in their homes and require owners of registered guns, including shotguns, to store them with trigger locks or keep them
disassembled.

Mr. Fenty said the city would be filing a petition to have the full court rehear the case and that he is confident the District will win on the appeal.

"We believe we'll be able to have the whole circuit court review this case," he said.

The District's gun laws, which are among the nation's strictest, will remain in place through the appeals process.

Chris W. Cox, chief lobbyist for the National Rifle Association, said the District's appeal was expected.

 

"This action was anticipated all along," Mr. Cox said. "Mayor Fenty seems determined to do whatever he can to deny the lawful residents of the District the constitutionally protected right to defend yourself or your
family in your own home."

Mr. Fenty's announcement was made during a press conference announcing a program to place anti-gun violence posters on Metro buses across the city.

The posters -- most of which will feature a hand forming a peace sign with the words "guns aside" -- are part of an awareness campaign to reduce gun violence spearheaded by the nonprofit Root Inc.

Each bus placard costs roughly $800 and was paid for by the health care provider Amerigroup and the D.C. Department of Health. They will be placed on roughly 20 Metro buses.

Organizers of the campaign said there had been 40 homicides in the District this year as of Tuesday and that the number of robberies committed with a handgun had so far increased by 8 percent compared with last year.

Council member Jim Graham, Ward 1 Democrat who also attended the press conference, tied efforts to decrease gun violence with the fight to overturn the court decision.

"We face not only a situation where we've got to keep guns off the streets, but now we've got to fight Congress and the courts from opening up the floodgates," Mr. Graham said.