Elijah Hurewitz-Ravitch, Contributing Photographer
New Haven and Connecticut officials, healthcare and law enforcement experts, and community organizers gathered for a roundtable convened by Rep. Rosa DeLauro last Thursday to discuss gun violence prevention strategies. In a basement classroom at the School of Public Health, the group of 17 spent 90 minutes sharing their diverse perspectives on the issue.
“It’s that collaboration that brings us together,” DeLauro said. “We can help try to make a difference. Can’t do it all at once, we can’t do it every time, but by God, we want to help.”
Four focal points emerged as top funding priorities: on-the-ground social programs, data infrastructure, collaboration between parties and the sharing of best practices and resources for survivors.
Megan Ranney, dean of the School of Public Health — joined by gun prevention advocates like Tara Donnelly and Kim Washington, founder and president of Mothers Demand Action — emphasized the conversational nature of the roundtable.
“We know that we all need to work together [and] that this does not get fixed by one person or by one group,” Ranney said. “Each of your groups, each of your professions, each of your perspectives, are critical for making a dent in this problem and healing our communities.”
Ranney espoused the importance of sharing data about best practices across cities “to make sure that it’s available to all of our community partners, that it doesn’t just sit in academic journals.” She called for “closing that gap” between academic research, community organizations and law enforcement.
In New Haven, this collaboration is already underway, speakers said. Leonard Jahad, the executive director of the Connecticut Violence Intervention Program, spoke about “information sharing” with the New Haven Police Department, which he described as key to his group’s success.
Jahad’s organization receives referrals about youth who are at most at risk of engaging in violence — in his words, “shooters, gang or group members and victims of community violence” — and works to intervene before violence occurs. Jahad explained that the program works hand-in-hand with city officials.
“[New Haven’s] ecosystem is the best ever,” he told the News.
Tirzah Kemp, director of New Haven’s Department of Community Resilience, also said that New Haven’s support network was strong. She explained that her office’s long list of partners includes the NHPD, community groups, victims of gun violence, hospitals, alders and the mayor.
“We are doing incredible work in New Haven,” Kemp said. “There is coordination and there is work happening; we’ve got to get it lifted and we’ve got to get state funding.”
That, of course, is no sure thing. State Rep. Jillian Gilchrist explained in an interview that for several years, community gun violence prevention has been funded by two sources — the state budget and money from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which expired last year.
“As the ARPA’s ended, is the state gonna step up and fill in that gap? And if so, how?” Gilchrist, who represents West Hartford, asked.
She added that when state legislators sign on to proactive gun violence legislation, they often receive blowback from the National Rifle Association, or the NRA, and Connecticut Citizens Defense League members.
“They descend on you. They send emails, they troll you on social media, they call your office. It’s usually very intense and can be intimidating,” Gilchrist said.
Throughout the roundtable conversation, DeLauro emphasized the need to publicize the measures discussed, especially so that residents of areas with lower rates of gun violence understand exactly where their tax dollars are going.
“I don’t think the public knows a lot about it,” she told the News. “We have to tell the story of all of the efforts that are coming together to address it. Every community is concerned about public safety.”
That, in Ranney’s eyes, is one of the values of tackling such an intractable issue from a public health approach.
“When you talk about stuff in terms of people’s physical, mental and behavioral health, it’s something that every one of us can relate to,” she explained.
Gun violence prevention has been one of her priorities, and last December, several YSPH experts joined a group of advocates and policymakers at the White House to discuss data- and evidence-based approaches to prevent firearm injuries.
These and other efforts may be substantially more difficult under the new presidential administration.
On Jan. 21, after President Donald Trump signed a flurry of executive orders repealing many of former President Joe Biden’s most significant policy directives, the website for the federal Office of Gun Violence Prevention was removed. Several elected officials, including Connecticut Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, said that the office, established by Biden in 2023 as part of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, had been shut down. Bysiewicz spoke alongside a group of anti-gun violence advocates who gathered at the State Capitol last Wednesday to denounce the office’s closure.
This flux in presidential support for anti-gun violence programs only added to the sense of urgency shared by the roundtable participants on Thursday.
DeLauro pointed to two key “dangers” faced by funding for gun violence prevention: cuts to federal appropriations and “illegal executive actions” that come after funds have been allocated. She decried Trump’s freeze of federal grants and loans and highlighted how the spontaneous, decentralized pushback the order received led to its rescission.
“Your collective voices, your networks — you are the external pressure. I work in an institution that responds to external pressure,” DeLauro said. You see how, in 48 hours, they turned something around. They felt the heat.”
Looming over Thursday’s discussion was the possibility that Medicaid — which funds many of New Haven’s gun violence intervention initiatives and social services for victims — will be cut.
Still, after the roundtable, DeLauro sounded determined.
“There’s a challenge, but that’s where you have to take it on. We have to take it on,” she told the News.
In 2024, firearm-related violence in New Haven was down 24.9 percent from the year prior.
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