Everytown: President Biden’s Discretionary Funding Request Would Provide Key Funding to Address Gun Violence

The Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2022 would Devote $200 Million to a New Community Violence Intervention Program, $50 Million to Fund Critical Research, Increase ATF Funding, Background Checks and More

This Announcement Followed Yesterday’s Huge Victory for Gun Safety: President Biden Nominated his ATF Director and Announced Life-Saving Executive Actions to Eliminate the Market for Ghost Guns, Address City Gun Violence and Gun Trafficking, and More

WASHINGTON –– Today, Everytown for Gun Safety and its grassroots networks, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, released the following statements after President Joe Biden released his discretionary funding request for Fiscal Year 2022, which includes hundreds of millions of dollars designed to address gun violence and save lives. 

“Gun violence is an epidemic raging within the pandemic, and this funding request shows that President Biden will do what it takes to address it,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun safety. “If appropriated, these resources will save countless lives by providing critical support for community violence intervention programs, the ATF, research, and more –– and we applaud the President for continuing to lead the way on gun safety.”

“This funding request proves once again that President Biden is leading the strongest gun safety administration in history,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action. “Survivors and grassroots volunteers have been fighting for this type of serious funding to address gun violence for years. This funding request will save lives, particularly in the primarily Black and Latinx cities and communities that bear the brunt of America’s gun violence crisis. We look forward to standing behind President Biden as he looks to the House and Senate to appropriate these funds.” 

This funding request, if appropriated, would represent a big step for gun safety that will save lives, and –– in conjunction with yesterday’s actions –– is just the beginning of the President’s plan to address gun violence in America. 

The President’s discretionary funding request for FY 2022 would address gun violence by: 

• Requesting $200 million for a new Community Violence Intervention initiative to implement evidence-based community violence interventions locally that will address gun violence in cities. The proposed funding would be evenly divided between the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) with the expectation of coordination between the agencies.
• Requesting an increase in funding for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to $1.6 billion –– a five percent increase over FY 2021. 
• Requesting $50 million for firearm violence prevention research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) –– double the amount appropriated in FY 2021. A fact sheet on why funding gun violence research matters is available here. 
• Requesting funding for DOJ to support existing programs to improve the background check systems.
• Requesting funds for DOJ to reinvigorate federal civil rights enforcement and invest in community policing, police reform, and other efforts to address systemic inequities.
• Requesting increased funding for the DOJ and Department of Homeland Security to address the rising threat of armed extremism by providing resources to support diverse, innovative, and community-driven methods to prevent domestic terrorism while respecting civil rights and liberties, and to engage in the investigation and prosecution of those who have committed crimes.

The request comes during Everytown’s “Road Trip for Background Checks,” a 10-day series of volunteer-driven road trip events taking place across the country, all headed toward Washington D.C., in order to call for U.S. Senators to pass background check legislation. At stops along seven different routes across the country, a bipartisan group of volunteers, gun violence survivors, gun owners, veterans, faith leaders, and elected leaders will decorate a mural and collect personal stories, photos of loved ones killed by gun violence, and letters to Congress. The mural and messages will be driven or delivered from stop-to-stop, state-to-state, over ten days, and then assembled in Washington D.C. and delivered in person to Senators on Capitol Hill. The Road Trip, which is paired with digital and TV ad spending, will demonstrate the broad, bipartisan coalition supporting background check legislation by including at least 23 geographically and politically diverse states (see a complete map here). Ninety-three percent of Americans –– including 89% of Republicans and 89% of gun owners –– support legislation to expand background checks.