Gov. Hochul: State to invest $6.2M to help fight gun violence

Gov. Kathy Hochul was in Mount Vernon Monday to announce new measures in the fight against gun violence.

News 12 Staff

Nov 22, 2021, 3:20 PM

Updated 1,051 days ago

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Gov. Kathy Hochul was in Mount Vernon Monday to announce new measures in the fight against gun violence.
Hochul announced the state is investing $6.2 million to expand community- and hospital-based gun violence intervention programs in New York City and eight other cities across the state that have experienced significant increases in shootings and firearm-related murders over the past year.
The announcement was fittingly made at the Boys and Girls Club in Mount Vernon since it is one of the nonprofits receiving money from the grant.
Also on the list is Jacobi Medical Center and Yonkers YMCA.
The money will also add staff at many organizations, including 90 new outreach workers and violence interrupters who will work to reduce gun violence through mediation, mentoring and community engagement.
An additional $100,000 in funding will go to Family Services of Westchester and Peace is a Lifestyle to expand their youth engagement in Westchester and the Bronx.
Leaders agreed that saving communities impacted by gun violence starts with saving the youth that live there. "Our young people are worth saving...We have to give them hope," said Hochul.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D - 16th District) says gun violence needs to be wiped out everywhere in the Hudson Valley. "If there is no gun deaths in Scarsdale, Bronxville, and Rye, there shouldn't be any Mount Vernon, Yonkers, or the Northeast Bronx," said Bowman.
New York State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D) says everyone needs to do more to fight this problem. "Since we have taken the majority, we have passed no less than 15 sensible gun laws...we have not only crisis here, but it is a national crisis. I am happy to be in a state that recognizes that we have to do something. People in the community working with the police are essential."
The funding comes just two weeks after New York signed into law the nation's toughest restrictions on ghost guns.