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Cleveland council to introduce resolution declaring gun violence a public-health crisis
Summary
Councilman Starr said the City Council will introduce a resolution to declare gun violence a public-health crisis and highlighted local homicide and injury data; community groups and council leaders urged a comprehensive prevention strategy and warned grant cuts have reduced local outreach capacity.
Cleveland City Council members said they will introduce a resolution to declare gun violence a public-health crisis and will put the measure to a vote this evening, saying the step is intended to coordinate prevention, intervention and enforcement efforts across city and county agencies and community partners.
The declaration is intended to accelerate citywide, cross-sector action “to mobilize resources and partnerships across law enforcement, health care, education and community organizations,” Councilman Starr said, citing a span of data the council majority described as evidence that gun violence has deep and disproportionate local impacts.
The councilmen and community speakers framed the move as a response to several local statistics cited during the remarks: from 2019 through February 2024, speakers said Cleveland recorded 953 homicides, 825 of them Black victims; Cuyahoga County had the highest rate of gun-related deaths in Ohio in 2021; and Cleveland emergency-room visits for gunshot wounds in 2023 were described as about 102 per…
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