Gun Violence Reduction Grant To Fund Police Overtime, New Equipment In Bucks Co.

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency awarded the Bucks County District Attorney's Office with a $223,129 grant to prevent and reduce local gun violence, according to a news release on Wednesday.

The grant will fund investigative equipment and overtime for municipal police officers, the DA's office said.

“This grant will allow us to make a difference in the fight against straw purchases of firearms, and therefore against gun violence,” District Attorney Matt Weintraub said.

A straw purchase is an illegal firearm purchase, where the actual buyer will use a proxy buyer to pass the required background check and will then have access to a firearm.

The stated purpose of the commission’s 2021 Gun Violence Reduction Grant Program is to provide funding to support community-based strategies to prevent and reduce gun violence in areas with the highest rates of shootings, homicides, and firearm-related crime.

Goals include promoting "immediate safety" for individuals living and working within neighborhoods in Philadelphia and other municipalities; supporting effective, community-designed, and community-led strategies to decrease shootings and increase public safety in the short and long term; and prioritizing support for nonprofit organizations working at the neighborhood and community levels to prevent and reduce gun violence, especially those that have not previously received funding from the commission.

In May, Governor Tom Wolf announced that more than $5 million in grant funding would be available toward these ends.

The program also makes available other community-based interventions, like referrals to partner agencies focused on meeting basic needs of participants (including education, employment, health and other services), comprehensive re-entry programs for returning citizens, and trauma-informed approaches to support victims and survivors of gun violence.

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