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Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2015 - 2016 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted:	May 22, 2015 01:36 PM
From:	Senator Art Haywood
To:	All Senate members
Subject:	Designating June 2015 as "Gun Violence Awareness Month" in Pennsylvania

In the near future, I will introduce a resolution recognizing June 2015 as “Gun Violence Awareness Month” in Pennsylvania. This June, I ask us all to shine a light on gun violence and gun safety as a public health issue in our communities. We lose an average of eighty-eight Americans to gun violence each day: more than the deaths suffered in Newtown, Columbine and at Virginia Tech on a daily basis. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Pennsylvania had the 4th highest number of gun deaths out of all fifty states in the first decade of the 21st century. Our commonwealth suffers from unrelenting grief and trauma as gun violence claims the lives of neighbors, friends and family members. The Center for American Progress recently found that women are at greater risk of domestic violence when guns are readily accessible to their abusers. As citizens of the United States, each of us is twenty times more likely to die by gun violence than someone from another developed country. These tragedies are an unacceptable threat to our public health, and we must do our part to foster the discussion between citizens and community leaders on how we can make our neighborhoods safer. We must remain vigilant regarding this public health concern, particularly during the summer months, when an escalation in gun violence is often seen. I believe that increased awareness will allow us all to understand this epidemic and start a constructive, bipartisan conversation on how to address it. Please join me in co-sponsoring this resolution.

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