DOJ provides $231M funding for gun violence prevention programs [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• The DOJ is giving states $231 million in funding for gun violence prevention programs.
• The funding is part of the $1.4 billion provided by the wide-ranging gun violence legislation passed in June.
• The fund aims to enforce “red-flag laws” and other crisis-intervention programs to help save lives.

The Department of Justice is giving states and the District of Columbia over $200 million to help fund “red-flag laws” and other crisis-intervention programs included in the landmark bipartisan gun legislation passed by Congress over the summer.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that such funding “will reduce gun violence and save lives.”

The District of Columbia and 19 states currently have red-flag laws, which are known as extreme risk protection orders intended to temporarily remove guns from people with potentially violent behavior in order to prevent them from hurting themselves or others.

The $231 million funding was announced on Tuesday, which marks the fifth anniversary of the deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Some of the funding will go toward other gun-violence reduction programs and crisis-intervention court proceedings.

The funding is part of the $1.4 billion provided by the wide-ranging gun violence legislation passed in June to help the DOJ enact gun violence prevention measures over five years.

The legislation toughened requirements for young people to purchase weapons, denied firearms to domestic abusers, and strengthened funding for mental health programs and schools.

Such funding aims to “help protect children, families, and communities across the country from senseless acts of gun violence,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland.

President Joe Biden, other officials, and gun control advocates have called for better implementation of red-flag laws to stop gun violence before it happens. But according to the Associated Press, such laws have been underused amid increased shootings and gun deaths around the country.

For instance, the suspect in the November shooting at an LGBT nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, allegedly threatened his mother with a homemade bomb a year and a half earlier. But there’s no such record that relatives or police officers tried to enforce Colorado’s law.

This could be attributed to a reluctance or lack of awareness to enforce such laws. These laws differ by state but generally allow law enforcement or relatives to petition a court for an order to remove weapons from a dangerous individual for up to a year. Critics have argued that such a law could violate a person’s Second Amendment rights, but the DOJ said that the program has checks in place to ensure due process.

Source: Aol.com