(Hartford,Conn. WTIC)-Advocates and stakeholders sent a message to a joint informational hearing on gun violence, intervention and prevention that more money is needed for boots on the ground and that the pandemic caused an increase in more cases.
They pointed out that gun violence costs the state of Connecticut 1.2 Billion dollars a year. Supervising Epidemologist for the state Department of Public Health, Susan Login, testified that over a five year period, the state experienced 2, 681 violent deaths, including 559 homicides. She says over that time frame, firearms caused 34-percent of the deaths.
The Executive Director of Connecticut Against Gun Violence says young black men are 39 times more likely to be killed by a gun than their white counterparts. Jeremy Stein and others are calling for the creation of the Connecticut Initiative to Prevent Gun Violence.
Brent Peterkin, the former Statewide Director of Project Longevity, lost fourteen friends to homicide. He says 70 percent of Connecticut's homicides occur in Hartford, Waterbury, New Haven and Bridgeport.
