Last night, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed and Governor Shapiro signed the FY 2024-25 state budget, which included key priorities for CeaseFirePA, the Commonwealth’s leading gun violence prevention organization.
Adam Garber, CeaseFirePA’s Executive Director, issued the following statement in response:
“This budget continues investments in safer communities that have contributed to a significant drop in gun violence across the Commonwealth. It will save lives. “The $56.5 million in funding for community-based violence prevention and intervention programs represents a $16.5 million increase from last year’s budget. That means more violence interrupters and credible messengers deescalating conflicts before they erupt in gunfire, more afterschool programs providing young people with constructive and safe spaces, and more community-led initiatives that have been key to cutting gun violence in cities like Pittsburgh, York, and Philadelphia – where the homicide rate has dropped 40% compared to 2023, on top of a 20% drop the year prior. This investment is a strong step forward, but clearly based on the life-saving results of the $175 million invested by the state over the past three years, we should be expanding funding even further.
“Yet this budget also misses a ripe opportunity to make our Commonwealth even safer, and could have gone farther. It’s disappointing that the General Assembly didn’t fund Governor Shapiro’s proposed $1.5 million for targeted inspections of firearm dealers – 1% of whom are responsible for selling 50% of PA’s recovered crime guns. This funding to hire more Auditors at the PA State Police would have helped ensure dealers are following existing laws designed to stop gun trafficking, building on a similar initiative that was advanced in Montgomery County in 2023. We’ll continue to advocate for this and other life-saving solutions, until every Pennsylvanian can live their lives free from gun violence.”
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As the Commonwealth’s leading gun violence prevention organization, CeaseFirePA organizes communities closest to the issue, holds those in power accountable, and maximizes the strengths of every member in its broad coalition.
