Gun Violence Coordinating Council
To address gun violence in the Tri-County area by facilitating coordination among stakeholders, and formulating a comprehensive gun violence prevention strategy.
The focus of the Tri-County Gun Violence Coordinating Council is to continuously review responses to gun violence. The Council works together to identify and implement improvements through policy development. This council brings law enforcement, the courts, advocates and community partners to resolve issues specific to the needs of those affected by gun violence.
During the past decade, the epidemic of gun violence has led residents and law enforcement agencies in each of the communities profiled in this section to form a council effort to find new solutions to this problem. In some cases, these efforts will be driven by neighborhood residents determined to address the problem of gun violence and to take back their streets. In other communities, crime reduction efforts may be spearheaded by police, prosecutors, the courts, schools, health departments, public and private social service organizations, or members of the faith and business communities.
Rather than targeting one or two risk factors associated with gun violence, this council must recognize that their efforts are likely to be more successful if they incorporate strategies that address both the supply and demand side of the illegal firearm market. They have therefore developed comprehensive, multiple-component programs that address the identified risk factors in multiple ways. Such program strategies include targeted police responses, surveillance of probationers, situational crime prevention using problem-solving strategies, parental supervision, peer mediation and conflict resolution, school-based interventions, community mobilization, legislation restricting youth access to guns, and tough sentences for crimes involving firearms.