Title
Calling on Mayor James F. Kenney to declare gun violence a citywide emergency and develop an urgent, unrelenting response to the gun violence epidemic plaguing Black and Brown neighborhoods in Philadelphia, and re-affirming the commitment of the City Council of Philadelphia to continue collaborating with, and supporting the work of, the Mayor, our City agencies, the criminal justice community, and non-governmental partners, to mitigate this deadly epidemic.
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WHEREAS, Gun violence has plagued Philadelphia for decades. Between 2003 and 2016, 82% of people murdered in Philadelphia were killed with a gun. Between 2007 and 2019, there were over 1,000 shootings annually, with over 1,250 shootings in all but four of these years. During this period, there were 17,293 total shooting victims in Philadelphia, with up to 1,597 people shot in any given year. Between 2007 and 2016, a hospital in the Third District reported treating 1,800 children victims of gun violence; and
WHEREAS, The gun violence epidemic has inflicted an unconscionable amount of trauma on Black and Brown communities in Philadelphia, as the perpetrators and victims of gun violence are predominantly young Black men. In 2015, gun violence was the leading cause of death among Black males ages 15-24 in the city. In 2017, 75% of perpetrators and victims of gun violence were Black men under the age of 45. One in two Black adults in Philadelphia report witnessing violence as a child, while only one in four White adults in the City report witnessing violence during childhood; and
WHEREAS, Many factors, like decades of intentional federal disinvestment in Black urban communities and state and federal gun law preemption, have contributed to the current gun violence epidemic. We must continue to advocate for gun law autonomy on the local level, and for more federal funding for our communities; and
WHEREAS, Over the past decade, the City of Philadelphia has implemented many strategies to combat gun viol...
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