Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson.
Photograph courtesy Workplace of Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson
Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson on Monday joined Bronx District Legal professional Darcel. D. Clark, New York Metropolis Faculties Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos, NYPD Patrol Borough Bronx Commander Benjamin Gurley, neighborhood leaders, youth advocates, and anti-gun violence leaders at Lou Gehrig Plaza to formally launch Gun Violence Consciousness Month (GVAM) within the Bronx.
With a disturbing rise in youth-related shootings and gun use, the Borough President and Bronx District Legal professional used the press convention to name for community-first methods to stop gun violence and uplift Bronx youth.
Gibson, whose father hails from Trinidad and Tobago, unveiled this 12 months’s Bronx GVAM theme: “The Violence Stops With Us,” a borough-wide marketing campaign encouraging residents to put on orange, attend neighborhood occasions, and share their tales on social media.
She additionally spotlighted youth engagement initiatives, together with neighborhood clean-up days and partnerships with native Treatment Violence organizations.
“We’re dropping our youngsters too quickly and too typically,” Gibson mentioned. “Gun violence is just not solely a public well being disaster, it’s also a youth disaster.
“It’s time we spend money on our younger individuals – not simply with phrases, however with actual sources, packages, and laws that preserve them protected, seen, and supported,” she added. “Peace is a life-style that we not solely need however deserve.”
“Right here within the Bronx, we’re tragically and sadly conscious of gun violence each month. The 12 months is just not half over but, and we have now seen 108 individuals shot, together with 13 individuals underneath the age of 18. The shootings have change into much more disturbing and stunning as a result of we’re seeing increasingly more kids firing weapons. Up to now couple of months, we have now charged 13-year-olds, 14-year-olds, and 15-year-olds with deadly shootings. This tradition of violence should finish. We can not fail to be shocked and heartbroken once we hear of a 13-year-old alleged assassin. I do know in my coronary heart that as our neighborhood comes along with willpower and function, we are going to reverse this development of gun violence amongst our youth,” mentioned Bronx District Legal professional Darcel Clark.
Gibson additionally voiced robust assist for state and federal motion on ghost weapons.
Lately, she mentioned untraceable firearms have change into a rising menace in New York Metropolis.
Gibson mentioned ghost gun recoveries by the NYPD have elevated by 154 % between 2020 and 2024.
In 2023, she famous that U.S. Rep. Richie Torres (NY-15) launched the Angellyh Yambo Gun Free Zone Enlargement Act, named in honor of a Bronx teen tragically killed by gun violence.
Torres has since urged Gov. Kathy Hochul to behave additional by closing ghost gun manufacturing loopholes on the state stage.
Gibson mentioned her workplace will host a sequence of occasions all through the month centered on youth engagement and neighborhood empowerment, together with neighborhood clean-ups, mum or dad assist workshops, and particular programming for Bronx fathers.
Residents are inspired to tag @Bronxbpgibson and use the hashtag #TheViolenceStopsWithUS to share their participation in Gun Violence Consciousness Month.
