State and local officials discussed gun violence at a roundtable discussion at the Dauphin County Administration Building.
State, county and city officials gathered on Tuesday to discuss the root causes of gun violence, as well as ways to address it.
Lt. Gov. Austin Davis hosted a roundtable conversation to tackle the issue, with local officials and community members commenting on the initiatives they’re taking to find solutions.
“Some people think that this [gun violence] is just a Harrisburg issue, or a Philadelphia issue or a Pittsburgh issue,” Davis said. “I want to be clear that this is a Pennsylvania issue, and it is uniquely an American issue. But it’s an issue that we can and must do something about.”
State Sen. Vincent Hughes (D-7), Rep. Patty Kim (D-103) and Dauphin County and Harrisburg officials were also in attendance.
Davis noted that the state has recently proposed a 2024 budget that would invest over $100 million into gun violence prevention efforts, including a $37.5 million increase to the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency’s (PCCD) Violence Intervention and Prevention grant program.
Officials talked about Harrisburg’s ongoing Group Violence Intervention program, which received funding through the PCCD. According to the GVI program manager for the city, Angelo Craig, the program is in the outreach phase, where identified members of violent groups will be contacted and invited to either receive help or face consequences. Craig expects that meetings with group members, service providers and community members will begin in September.
Cities like York and Philadelphia are also implementing GVI strategies and have seen positive results, Davis said.
Others talked about the need for additional investments in mental health resources, after-school programs for youth and employment opportunities for those re-entering society after prison.
Some community members called out elected officials and police for not doing enough to advocate for anti-gun violence initiatives, encouraging them to do more.
“What we need to figure out is why are our young people carrying guns, and the reality is that clearly, they don’t feel safe, so why is that?” said Kia Hansard, director of the Center for Employment Opportunities in Harrisburg. “When we have people that live in a community that feel as though the officials that run that city don’t care about them, don’t care about where they live […] what do you think happens?”
However, Harrisburg Police Commissioner Tom Carter shared that addressing the issue will take community buy-in and participation as well, noting that often violence among teens stems from troublesome home environments and family situations. Solving violence requires a holistic approach, he explained.
“We can’t always keep throwing money, money, money at the situation […] I need the help of everybody,” he said. “We look at the teenagers and they’re carrying guns. A lot of the time, they’re forced into that situation because they’re not getting love over here so they join gangs in order to feel love. We have to break that cycle and we have to educate parents too.”
Carter noted a recent gun buy-back program that the police bureau hosted, at which over 100 guns were received from the community. That program, which allows people to surrender guns no questions asked, is still going on, Carter said.
“We are all truly in this together,” Davis said. “And I think we have seen movement in a positive direction and we need to just continue to double down our efforts.”
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