Label
Council Members Gadus, Grim, Whitman and Hobbs
Title
Declaring gun violence, a public health crisis in the City of Toledo; and declaring an emergency.
Summary
WHEREAS, residents of the City of Toledo are living their lives in every growing fear of gun violence on a daily basis; and
WHEREAS, more Ohioans died from firearms in 2021 than almost any year on record according to Ohio Department of Health Data; and
WHEREAS, in 2022, the State of Ohio became a permit-less carry state, one of twenty-three other states in the country; and
WHEREAS, the number one cause of death for children ages 1-19 in the United States is gun violence with nine of the sixty homicides in Toledo with victims ranging from seven months to nineteen years of age; and
WHEREAS, communities of color are disproportionately impacted by gun violence; and
WHEREAS, a public health crisis is defined as meeting the following criteria:
1. The condition affects many people, is seen as a threat to the public, and is continuing to increase;
2. The condition is distributed unfairly;
3. Preventative measures could reduce the effects of the condition;
4. Those preventative measures are not yet in place; and
WHEREAS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlines a 4-step public health approach to violence prevention, rooted in the scientific method:
1. Define and monitor the problem;
2. Identify risk and protective factors;
3. Develop and test prevention strategies;
4. Assure widespread adoption; and
NOW, THEREFORE,
Be it resolved by the Council of the City of Toledo:
SECTION 1. That Toledo City Council declares gun violence to be a public health crisis and take appropriate steps to analyze and adopt prevention strategies to reduce the number of residents affected by gun violence.
SECTION 2. That this Resolution is declared to be an emergency measure necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peac...
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