Giffords Applauds Gun Violence Prevention Funding Included in Congressional Appropriations

Washington DC — Today, Giffords, the gun violence prevention organization founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, applauded the passage of the Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2023, which provides funding to combat gun violence and address community violence, in addition to funding mental health and trauma resources. This legislation also includes more than $38 million for community projects focused on addressing community violence, making it possible for Congress to provide direct investments to communities and organizations doing critical violence prevention and intervention work.

“The FY23 omnibus makes critical investments to address our country’s gun violence epidemic. This legislation provides funding to support efforts to address community violence, domestic violence, and firearm suicide. We are also grateful to see significant funding for community projects that support violence intervention efforts at the state and local level, which will help support organizations working to break the cycle of violence in vulnerable communities. Without the unwavering leadership of Chairman Patrick Leahy and Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro and their commitment to ending gun violence, Congress would not have made these substantial investments that prioritize public safety and public health. As gun violence continues to impact communities across the nation, we hope to continue seeing Congress invest in lifesaving programs.”

• $50 million for the Community Violence Prevention and Intervention Initiative within the Department of Justice, which supplements the $50 million for community violence intervention and prevention funding made available for FY23 in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. 
• $18.1 million for the CDC’s Youth Violence Prevention program to build upon and expand their work supporting violence intervention programs, including those that provide de-escalation and conflict mitigation skills, and those that involve health care and community outreach organizations to implement evidence-informed strategies to prevent violence. 
• $25 million for firearm injury and mortality prevention research, with $12.5 million for the CDC program and $12.5 million for the NIH program.
• $95 million for grants to states to upgrade criminal and mental health records for the NICS background check system, including $25 million for the NICS Act Record Improvement Program (NARIP).
• Increased funding for the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives (ATF), which would enable ATF to continue to enforce the nation’s gun laws, including expanding the implementation of the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network. The funding will also aid in ATF’s trafficking and violent gun crime reduction efforts. 
• Increased funding for the Office of Violence Against Women’s grant program that aids in the investigation of domestic violence and enforcement of protective orders, of which $4 million is for a homicide reduction initiative and up to $4 million of which is for the domestic violence lethality reduction initiative.

• $24.5 million for the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS). NVDRS is the most comprehensive database for violent death-related data within the U.S., which helps inform our approaches to violence prevention.
• Increased funding for Suicide Prevention Programs, including the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention and the Zero Suicide program, which helps address the issue of firearm suicides.  Firearm suicides are increasing at an alarming rate, with provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicating that 2021 marked the largest one year increase in gun suicides, impacting families and communities across the nation.
• Increased funding for Project AWARE grants, including providing $17.5 million specifically for grants supporting efforts in high-crime, high-poverty areas and in communities seeking to address the impacts and root causes of community violence and collective trauma. Project AWARE grants seek to support youth mental health, with the goal of promoting the healthy development of school-aged youth and preventing youth violence.  
• A directive to the Department of Justice to analyze what factors are delaying local and state law enforcement agencies from participating in the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), the system used by the FBI to understand the rates and types of crime occurring across the nation. The legislation also calls on the Department of Justice to offer avenues to address the delays in participation in the NIBRS system to help ensure effective crime data collection and reporting.