OFFICE OF GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION
In Chicago we currently spend $1.5 billion in policing while only allocating $2.8 million for our current office of violence prevention tasked with responding to bullying, child abuse and neglect, teen dating violence and childhood exposure to violence, as well as providing resources for young adults and professionals.
Additionally, we currently we spend 2-4 million dollars per gun related homicide. Including resources such as first responders, ambulance rides, law enforcement, hospital stays, and more.
In 2017 we had 650 gun related homicides when you mutliply that number of death with the amount per gun related homicide it brings the maximum cost of death to $2.6 billion dollars. We at Live Free Chicago believe it is too expensive to keep attempting to police ourselves out of gun related violence and homicide.
Imagine, even if we were to invest $60,000 annually per known shooter (40k living wage job/ 20k wrap around services), which is estimated to be 1/2 of 1% of the total population, we would only spend 800 million dollars.
That is $2.6 billion for the cost of death and only $800 million for the cost of peace. While Live Free does not advocate for paying offenders not to shoot we are advocating for the City of Chicago to establish an office of Gun Violence Prevention with a $50 million dollar budget. We outline below what we hope to see from this office.
Live Free Chicago staff, board members and supporters, made up of families effected by gun violence, advocating for an Office of Gun Violence Prevention. (Harper High School in West Englewood 2018)
Student led protest closing down the Dan Ryan Expressway in support of stricter gun laws in Illinois. Supported by Local clergy and faith-based organizations including Live Free Chicago.
Establish an Office of Gun Violence Prevention with a $50M Budget that will include:
1. A city-wide coordinated strategy to end gun violence using a public health community led strategy.
• A strategy will target the 15 communities at highest risk for experiencing gun violence
• Led by a community advisory board
Equipped with a staff dedicated to coordinating and addressing gun violence using a city-wide strategy
2. $48M funding to be regranted to community organizations on the ground implementing strategies that include:
• Outreach
• Mental Health Services
• Case Management
• Strategies and solutions led and created by individuals who are directly impacted by Gun Violence.