Council Agenda Could Spark Battles With Mayor

[SecularMotion]

After a summer of high-profile shootings, including outside the Empire State Building, gun violence continues to be a subject of interest for the Council.

This past week, a resolution was introduced into the Council in support of state legislation that would strengthen gun laws, including creating a 10-day waiting period for firearm purchases; the creation of universal background checks; regulation of ammunition sellers; and more.

The Council's own Task Force to Combat Gun Violence, co-chaired by Councilman Jumaane Williams, also is continuing to work on assessing programs to target neighborhoods where shootings are prevalent.

The Council earmarked $4.8 million for anti-gun violence initiatives in its discretionary budget earlier this year. Some of that money has been directed toward setting up programs modeled after the CeaseFire model that has been nationally recognized for reducing shootings in other cities. The model calls for approaching gun violence as a public health threat.

http://www.gothamgazette.com/index.php/topics/1453-council-agenda-could-spark-battles-with-mayor

[petronius]

1. I assume that's the part of the agenda that *won't* spark battles with the mayor?

Kinda curious what sort of regulation they propose for ammunition dealers, and what they mean by "universal background checks"...

[gejohnston]

2. do they know their own state's gun laws?

NY has licensing of all handguns and requires NICS for private sales of long guns
waiting period for all gun purchases? Why if you have a license?
http://www.nyfirearms.com/blog/nys-gun-laws/

[Atypical Liberal]

3. "The model calls for approaching gun violence as a public health threat." - NO GUN CONTROL AT ALL!

http://www.gothamgazette.com/index.php/topics/public-safety/1429-gun-violence-public-health

Looks like this kind of thing might actually work. And look, the effort has nothing to do with gun control and everything to do with curbing violent behavior.

The bulk of the effort is a shift away from "stop and frisk" and more towards addressing the root problems of urban violence - exactly what I have advocated all along.

"As part of the public health approach, the Council-funded initiatives will attempt to treat entire communities stricken by violence, with a sort of "holistic cure." That means offering training and job-placement services, therapy, and conflict mediation classes for public school students."

...

"One of the factors that contributes to street crime is lack of services," Gangi said. "The failure of schools, the lack of jobs, those are the issues and the problems that should be directly addressed … Addressing those problems would be more effective in stopping crime than any policing activity."

...

"Founded in 2004 with a grant from the federal government to replicate the Chicago program, like that pioneering effort, S.O.S. organizes community responses each time a shooting takes place in the neighborhood, and employs "violence interrupters" who spend their overnight shifts trying to learn of conflicts early enough to prevent them from turning violent."

"The organization also recruits local businesses and residents to join in the mission to "articulate that shooting is an unacceptable behavior," namely by posting the flyers — ubiquitous on Kingston and Brooklyn avenues — that keep track of how many days the neighborhood has gone without a shooting."

...

""The fact that this is a public health issue is definitely accepted within the task force, and is becoming accepted more widely," Councilman Williams said. After all, he added, "what we've been doing is not working.""

...

"The model calls for trained, street-smart individuals to intervene in group disputes to avoid violence. Outcomes are tracked extensively. The goal is to prevent violence.

Councilman Jumaane Williams, the co-chair of the anti-gun violence task force, says that a strategy of "focused deterrence" — getting police to target specific individuals or networks that have been determined to pose a threat — will help the initiative achieve that goal.

"It puts police resources into the members of the community who are known to have had run-ins with the law, instead of focusing on the entire community," Williams said."


You'll notice here that in this "public health" model there is no mention of actual gun control at all.

FINALLY they are looking at the underlying social issues that drive violence and focusing police efforts on known criminals.

[Eleanors38]

4. The "Throw-on-Wall, See What Sticks" Resolution? Very programmatic. nt