Although mass shootings draw the most attention, these incidents account for only a small fraction of the gun violence that occurs each year in the United States. Far more common are incidents of interpersonal violence that become fatal due to the easy availability of guns. The burden of this violence often falls disproportionately on urban communities and communities of color.1
Strengthening the nation’s gun laws is only one part of the solution; in order to reduce gun violence, it is also necessary to invest in evidence-based violence reduction strategies that engage all community stakeholders. Programmatic models such as Group Violence Intervention, Cure Violence, and Hospital-based Violence Intervention have proven to be successful at reducing violence in many communities.2
- Project Longevity: From 2011 to 2016, in three Connecticut cities in which this Group Violence Intervention program operates, gun homicides fell by more than 50 percent.3
- Richmond, California: A comprehensive strategy to address gun violence in Richmond by using elements of all three types of intervention programs resulted in a 71 percent reduction in gun violence leading to injury or death from 2007 to 2016.4