Today, Lt. Governor Austin Davis hosted a roundtable in Harrisburg to discuss gun violence and safe communities. Local officials, community leaders, and gun violence survivors spoke on the causes of gun violence…
 
“Unfortunately, we have generational curses. Some of the behaviors we're witnessing have been going on for generations.” said Charla Plaines, co-founder of the group Concerned About the Children of Harrisburg
 
… and solutions needed.
 
“If we're not investing the time and energy to improve behaviors, we're going to continue to see what we're seeing,” said Plaines.
 
A new report from Center for American Progress shows that out of all the large cities in America, Philadelphia has seen the largest drop in gun violence in the past year.
 
The report credits holistic investments in local programs as a big part of the solution.
 
Pennsylvania’s Commission on Crime and Delinquency has several grant programs that contributed to that decline— like the Violence Intervention & Prevention Grant.
 
“The VIP grant program is working, and today’s roundtable offered good discussion with leaders who are making use of those grant dollars to bring positive change to communities,” said Senator Vincent Hughes, who attended the roundtable.
 
Looking at specific areas to focus funding, leaders at today’s roundtable said there is a need for conflict resolution education, bullying prevention in schools, and access to mental health care for communities to process trauma as just some examples of needed resources.
 
“There’s not going to be a silver bullet to end this epidemic of gun violence,” said Davis. “It's going to have to take a comprehensive approach from investing in law enforcement, investing in community based organizations to do violence intervention prevention work, and investing in the root causes like opportunity, like employment, like workforce development, like our schools.”
 
Governor Josh Shapiro has proposed $100 million in safe community investments for this budget.
 
“I think the one thing that Democrats and Republicans agree on is that public safety has to be a huge part of whatever we end up doing in a final budget package,” said Davis. "So I suspect the issue's not going to be what we fund or how we fund it. It's going to be what the dollar amounts are.”
 
Once money is confirmed, community leaders stressed the need for coordinating so organizations can hone their specialty rather than having multiple groups trying to do multiple things with less quality.
 
“A lot of times people will go after great big pots of money, but they can only do a little slice of pie,” said Plaines.
 
Lastly, a gunshot survivor reminded leaders that money is not always the answer.
 
"Conversations are free. You going out into the community is free. You knocking on doors and saying, hey, I'm here for you. You can call me. I can be a mentor for you. You don't have a dad? I can be your dad,” said Mariah Lewis, founder of the organization I Choose Me.
 
"There’s a lot of people who feel that way. They don't want you to wait on another individual to say, 'hey, I released the funds for you to do this.' They want you to start now with what you have.”