Title:
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Call for City of Chicago to undertake comprehensive gun violence prevention plan
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Topic:
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CITY COUNCIL - Miscellaneous
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RESOLUTION (
WHEREAS, The scourge of gun violence has caused serious harm to the people and communities ofthe great City of Chicago; and
WHEREAS, According to a study released by the University of Chicago, the murder rate in Chicago jumped dramatically in 2016 to 27.7 homicides per 100,000 residents; and
WHEREAS, Chicago's murder rate is far outpacing most other U.S. cities, including the four other largest in the U.S.: New York City, Los Angeles, Houston, and Philadelphia; and
WHEREAS, There were more than 4,300 shooting incidents in Chicago in 2016; and
WHEREAS, Homicides, shootings, and robberies involving a gun all saw double-digit percentage increases; and
WHEREAS, Gun violence negatively affects the physical, mental, and emotional health of all people and hurts all neighborhoods; and
WHEREAS, Gun violence disproportionately affects young people and people of color;
and
WHEREAS, Today's survivors of gun violence may perpetuate the cycle of gun violence themselves; and
WHEREAS, Cities that treat violence like an infectious disease by intervening in specific neighborhoods and treating individuals with a public health approach have seen significant reductions in gun violence; and
WHEREAS, Our residents have a right to healthy living, which includes safe neighborhoods that are free of gun violence; and
WHEREAS, The mission of public health is the attainment of positive physical, mental, and social well-being; and
WHEREAS, The City Council of the City of Chicago recognizes the City's current gun violence crisis is a public health issue that must be addressed with a coordinated public health response; now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED, That we, the Members ofthe City Council of the City of Chicago, assembled this twenty-fifth day of January, 2017, do hereby:
Call upon the City of Chicago to undertake a comprehensive gun violence prevention plan in order to reduce the physical, mental, and emotional cost of gun violence; and
Call upon the Department of Public Health to develop and implement a comprehensive interdisciplinary response to gun violence; and
Call upon a Joint Committee composed ofthe Committee on Health and Environmental Protection and the Committee on Public Safety to convene one or more hearings that include testimony from affected communities, victims of gun violence, and health experts from
the Chicago Department of Public Health, with the goal of developing and implementing a comprehensive interdisciplinary response to gun violence; and
Urge the Budget Director to consider ways whereby the City of Chicago can set aside $50 million in the next annual budget to implement the Chicago Department of Public Health's gun violence prevention plan; and
Call upon the United States Congress to pass Senate Bill 1473 in order to authorize the appropriation of funds to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for conducting or supporting research on firearms safetyjy^gm^violeijnce prevention in the United States.