Shootings are on the rise in some of Connecticut’s biggest cities. Some lawmakers from those cities want more money for gun violence prevention.
Lawmakers from Bridgeport, Hartford and New Haven called for the state to use federal funds — like those in President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill — as well as state money.
Marilyn Moore is a state Senator from Bridgeport. She said funds for gun violence prevention have historically gone to police rather than community organizations.
“Those organizations are the ones that do the work and they should be the one to build a coalition that oversees it. And it should not be overseen by government, police, state troopers. It should be overseen by the people who have come from the communities, who understand the work that needs to be done,” Moore said.
Gary Winfield is a state senator from New Haven. He agreed more money should be going to community organizations instead of police departments to prevent gun violence.
“The policy we should have is to allow those who do the work, because there are people who do this work and do it well, but they are not resourced enough, they are not big enough, to allow them to do the work and us to support them,” Winfield said.
Many Connecticut cities reported more shootings in 2020 than the previous year. A 3-year-old and a 16-year-old died in separate shootings in Hartford last weekend. And a man died after a seven-hour standoff with police in Branford where he shot at passersby from a building Tuesday.
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