Fellow Advocate,

I have a couple important updates to share about our push for a $100 million gun safety budget in Pennsylvania. First, this week, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared gun violence a public health crisis, for the first time in American history.¹ As part of that declaration, he echoed our call for more investment in community violence intervention programs as a way to alleviate this crisis.

This couldn’t have come at a more pressing time, because my next update is this: the General Assembly is required to pass the 2025 PA State Budget by June 30, meaning we have just three days to advocate for the very investments Dr. Murthy calls for in PA.

As I told you a few weeks back, Gov. Shapiro proposed a $100 million investment in evidence-based, community-led violence interruption programs across the Commonwealth, as well as establishing PA’s first Office of Gun Violence Prevention to coordinate these programs. We’re doing our part to lean on legislators and drum up support for this life-saving budget, but we need your help. Will you send a message to your State Representative and your State Senator urging them to support our gun safety budget by voting for this critical $100 million investment in our communities?

Last year, we went through a similar process, and that ended in compromise. The budget we ended up with made a $40 million allotment in community-based gun safety initiatives, and these are already starting to bear fruit. 

One quick example: In March, the city of Erie received an $836,000 grant² to fund youth counseling through the District Attorney’s Office. By connecting youth who are at-risk for engaging in violence with more access to support services they're preventing shootings before they destroy lives.

This is just one of so many examples of communities that are taking seed money and growing replicable, scalable programs to end gun violence. With a fully-funded gun safety budget in PA, we could see programs like these flourish all over the Commonwealth. So, will you send a message to your Representative and Senator Nikil Saval, imploring them to do everything they can to win a $100 million investment in community violence intervention programs right now?

Your advocacy is saving lives,
Adam Garber
Executive Director
CeaseFirePA Action