VICTORY FOR GUN SAFETY: Following Advocacy by Moms Demand Action Volunteers, New Mexico Includes Historic Violence Intervention Program Funding in Budget

The New Mexico chapters of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, both part of Everytown for Gun Safety, today released the following statement after the New Mexico legislature allocated $9 million for violence intervention programs – the most the state has ever allocated. Throughout the session, volunteers and supporters sent nearly 130 emails in support of violence intervention program funding. 

“This is a major win for our state,” said Regina Griego, a gun violence survivor and volunteer with the New Mexico chapter of Moms Demand Action. “With this funding, violence intervention groups can focus on their life-saving work and worry less about their budget. We’re grateful to our leaders for joining the ranks of other gun violence prevention leaders across the country to prioritize violence intervention programs.”

“Increasing support for targeted violence intervention programs helps us proactively reduce violent crime in the communities that are impacted the most. By preventing violent crime before it happens, violence intervention programs make the Albuquerque area and every community safer in the long run,” said Rep. Dayan Hochman-Vigil. 

Violence Intervention Program funding supports community-based violence intervention programs that apply a localized approach to reducing gun violence in New Mexico’s hardest-hit neighborhoods. These programs apply a public health model to ending gun violence and keeping New Mexico communities safe. This funding is more important than ever as our communities continue to face devastating upticks in gun violence across the state – including record levels in Albuquerque last year.

New polling shows 59% of New Mexico voters surveyed  – including 58% of gun owners – support the use of state funding to create community-based violence intervention programs which are proven to reduce the amount of gun violence and homicides in cities.  

Statistics about gun violence in New Mexico are available here, and Everytown’s interactive gun law platform — which shows the direct correlation between the strength of a state’s gun laws and its rate of gun deaths — is available here.