Horsford Shares Personal Connection to Gun Violence While Advocating for Community Intervention

Lawmaker Delivers Emotional Call to Fund Data-Backed Violence Prevention
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Steven Horsford (NV-04) today joined fellow lawmakers and participants from the University of Chicago Crime Lab’s Community Violence Intervention Leadership Academy (CVILA) to call on lawmakers from both sides of the aisle to fund evidence-informed community violence intervention and prevention programs.
Key excerpts:
“I’m not standing here because I’m a Member of Congress, or because I’m a longtime gun safety advocate – I’m here because I’m a son. When I was 19 years old, my father was shot and killed a block away from where I grew up, and in the center of the district that I now represent. I was a freshman in college, away at school when I got that phone call that far too many families receive. He was young himself at the time. He took a bullet to the chest while working at a convenience store and he died on the way to the hospital. I never had the chance to say goodbye…or for me to tell him that I loved him…or for him to have the opportunity to see me finish school, start a family, and go on to serve and represent my community.”
~~~
“[W]e continue to be the only country that deals with this epidemic in the manner that we do. 47,000 of our fellow citizens die each year…We stand alone as a nation continuing a national debate about whether the solution to overwhelming gun violence is more guns. [W]e stand alone in refusing to address the fact that gun violence disproportionally affects Black America and other marginalized communities, forcing historically disadvantaged communities to remain hardest hit.”
~~~
“If you believe in saving lives, if you want to reduce crime, and [if] you want to be focused on solutions, then you need to commit to additional funding for community violence intervention.”
Congressman Horsford is a longtime advocate for evidence-informed community violence intervention and prevention programs. His Break the Cycle of Community Violence Act would invest $5 billion in anti-violence programs, and $1.5 billion in workforce training and job opportunities.
Horsford also delivered the largest investment in community violence intervention with a $50 million inclusion in the Safer Communities Act, which is now law.
Video of Congressman Horsford’s full remarks is available here.