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Moms Demand Action, Community Passageways Applaud House Committee for Advancing Legislation to Establish the Washington Office of Firearm Violence Prevention House Committee

2.28.2020

The Washington chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, part of Everytown for Gun Safety, and Community Passageways today released the following statement after the Washington House Civil Rights and Judiciary Committee passed SB 6288, legislation to establish the Office of Firearm Violence Prevention. The office would promote effective state and local efforts to reduce preventable injuries and deaths from daily gun violence in Washington: 

“It’s critical to find and support solutions to daily gun violence that will have the greatest impact and potential to save lives,” said Toldy Dolack, a volunteer with the Washington chapter of Moms Demand Action.  “Gun sense champions in the House continue to prove to Washingtonians they are serious about ending gun violence in all its forms by advancing legislation to create the Office of Firearm Violence Prevention. We urge the House to take a vote on this bill immediately.”   

“We are excited to see legislators taking meaningful steps to support violence prevention and intervention programs, including youth felony diversion programs like ours,” said Dominique Davis, CEO and founder of Community Passageways. “The delivery of family-integrated transition services through the use of “credible messenger” type advocates has been a huge success in King County and has supported youth living in areas that experience high rates of gun violence to start businesses, graduate from high school, attend college and actively participate in changing the narrative of not only their own lives, but their communities.” 

The Office of Firearm Violence Prevention would promote effective state and local efforts to reduce preventable injuries and deaths from daily gun violence in Washington. While Washington is a national leader in gun violence prevention, the state has not historically prioritized local violence intervention and prevention programs aimed at reducing interpersonal gun violence. Establishing the Washington Office of Firearm Violence Prevention would allow the state to support several effective gun violence reduction initiatives and create a case study for funding throughout the state. 

Statistics about gun violence in Washington are available here, and information on how Washington’s gun laws compare to other states overall is available here.