Apr 05, 2018

Giffords Law Center;

This year, America's young people are demanding change and building a movement for gun safety reform. We have watched in awe as young students emerged from bullet-ridden classrooms in Parkland, Florida, and exclaimed Never again. We have witnessed their courage and eloquence as they stood up on national television to US Senators and NRA celebrities, demanding action, answers, and accountability. This generation—the future leaders of our country—understands that gun violence is not inevitable. And they know that the Second Amendment is not under threat. We are.Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence presents this report as a tool for this new generation of activists. It provides data about the scope of the gun violence problem facing America's youth and offers concrete recommendations for evidence-based policies that save lives. Our goal is to support the Parkland students and the thousands of young people they have inspired, as well as the lawmakers who hear their call for action and want to work together to make a change. Despite the brutal pain that follows each tragic shooting in our country, the courage of our nation's youth shines a brighter light on our future.

Apr 04, 2018

American Public Health Association;

To enhance America's public health response to gun violence, we need:*Better Surveillance. In 2017, the National Violent Death Reporting System collected data from 40 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Information on firearm fatalities from all 50 states and the District of Columbia would provide a more complete picture of gun violence in the United States.11In fiscal year 2018, Congress provided $23.5 million to expand the NVDRS to all 50states. We need to maintain this funding for nationwide implementation because the data collected would prove invaluable for the design of targeted gun violence prevention strategies.*More Research. Several laws have effectively restricted federally funded research related to gun violence, as well as access to complete crime gun data.12,13,14 Yet information is needed to fill critical research gaps. For example, there is almost no credible evidence that right-to-carry laws increase or decrease violent crime, almost no empirical evidence to support dozens of violence prevention programs for children, scant data on the effects of different gun safety technologies on violence and crime, and scant data on the link between firearms policy and suicidal behavior.15,16We must expand the collection of data and research related to gun violence and other violent crime deaths in order to better understand the causes and develop appropriate solutions. Congress should provide unrestricted funding to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for research into the causes of gun violence.*Common-Sense Gun Policies. APHA supports requiring criminal background checks for all firearms purchases, including those sold at gun shows and on the Internet. Currently unlicensed private firearms sellers are exempt from conducting criminal background checks on buyers at gun shows or over the Internet, giving felons, the mentally ill and others prohibited from owning firearms access to weapons. We also support reinstating the federal ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, which expired in 2004.*Expanded Access to Mental Health Services. Funding for mental health services has been declining, and funding for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration continues to be threatened by budget cuts including cuts due to sequestration. We must ensure that state, local and community-based behavioral health systems have the resources they need to provide much-needed care.

Mar 30, 2018

Foundation Review, The;

This article examines two philanthropic responses to the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, on June 12, 2016, a tragedy that particularly impacted the region's growing Latinx LGBT community. The Central Florida Foundation's Better Together Fund and the Our Fund Foundation's Contigo Fund, while organized and operating in different ways, looked to best practices in crisis philanthropy and, in the wake of the massacre, provided the region with resources to address both short- and longer-term needs. Better Together practiced strategic philanthropy focused on addressing systemic issues. Contigo lifted up new and diverse leadership from the grassroots. Each learned from the other while responding to the Pulse tragedy in ways that adhered to their distinct missions and values. In doing so, they made important contributions to their community and, in planning and implementation, to the field of crisis philanthropy.

Mar 27, 2018

Everytown For Gun Safety;

Like many mass shooters, the 19-year-old suspected of shooting and killing at least 17 people and injuring 17 others at a high school in Parkland, Florida displayed warning signs prior to the shooting. According to media reports, the alleged shooter was known to have firearms, and his mother had contacted law enforcement regarding his behavior on multiple occasions. Unfortunately, at the time Florida did not have a Red Flag Law—a policy increasingly being adopted by states that empowers family members and law enforcement to seek an Extreme Risk Protection Order, a court order temporarily restricting a person's access to guns when they pose a danger to self or others. Like Florida—which enacted its own Red Flag Law with bipartisan support in March 2018—states around the country are turning to the policy as a common-sense way to help reduce gun violence and gun suicide. Six states have Red Flag Laws in place—and bills are currently pending in another 22 states. Red Flags Laws can save lives by creating a way for family members and law enforcement to act before warning signs escalate into tragedies.

Mar 23, 2018

Center for American Progress;

What is an extreme risk protection order (ERPO)?An extreme risk protection order is a civil remedy that allows family members or law enforcement to petition a court to temporarily remove firearms from a person who poses an imminent risk of harm to themself or others. For the duration of the protection order, the individual is also prohibited from buying new guns.

Mar 13, 2018

Center for American Progress;

For two decades, as the result of a coordinated attack by the gun lobby, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been hamstrung from researching gun violence as a public health crisis. In 1996, congressional allies of the gun lobby added a rider to the CDC budget that prevented the agency from spending any funds to "advocate or promote gun control." At the same time, Congress reduced the funding appropriated to the CDC by $2.6 mil-lion—the exact amount that the CDC spent on gun violence research the previous year. In 2011, a similar rider was added to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget. The combination of the rider and a lack of dedicated funding has had a substantial chilling effect on research into gun violence.