The City of Buffalo’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention, formally established in 2025, is receiving its first-ever direct state funding.
A ceremonial check for $50,000 was delivered Wednesday by State Senator Jeremy Zellner.
“It has connected organizations, community leaders, and government agencies around a common goal, and it has helped ensure that the people doing this work every day are being heard,” Zellner said. “We spend a lot of time talking about what happens after violence occurs. The people standing behind me are spending their time trying to prevent it.”
Among those standing with Zellner for the ceremonial check presentation was Pastor James Giles of Back to Basics Ministries, one of several community agencies who participate with the Office of Gun Violence Prevention. His agency, along with F.A.T.H.E.R.S., Most Valuable Parents of Buffalo, Peaceprints, and the Buffalo Brady Chapter, address the issue through youth-minded initiatives and neighborhood-level programs.
“It really starts at home. It really starts at the kitchen table. It really starts on the holidays and in the parks,” Giles said. “It starts then, where we can begin to start letting our young people know, letting our children know, let our Pre-K and kindergarten children know what gun violence does to a community and a neighborhood.”
Buffalo’s Office of Gun Violence prevention was formed by then-acting mayor Christopher Scanlon and Common Councilmember Zeneta Everhart. But Everhart, whose son was wounded in the May 14, 2022 racist mass shootings on Buffalo’s East Side, says the inspiration traces to a federal level office formed by the Biden Administration not long after the Buffalo tragedy.
“It is crucial that we are providing our young people with programs talking to them directly about gun violence and the effects of it in their homes, and in their neighborhoods, in their schools, in their communities, and what that looks like,” she said. “That is what this office is going to do, that's what it's been doing, and what it's going to continue to do.”
She noted the timing of the announced funding came hour after a domestic violence incident on Hager Avenue that left a young child wounded by gunfire. Investigators say occupants of an upper-level apartment fought over a gun, which discharged and sent a bullet through the floor, striking the child in the shoulder. One of the adults upstairs was also wounded. Both victims were recovering and a police spokesman announced later in the day a suspect was in custody.
Zellner noted that as of March of this year, shootings in Buffalo were down 57 percent from one year before, and he credited gun violence prevention efforts from the governor down to grassroots organizations for the downward trend. However, there has been a recent surge of gun violence, including one incident in which a Buffalo Police officer was seriously wounded by multiple gunshots.
Everhart, recognizing the recent trend, acknowledges concerns that there may be more violence this summer. She says a critical part of what the community partners do is go into neighborhoods to address the root issues that lead later to crime.
“I think that people need to understand that crime happens after the issue,” she said. “There's all types of it. There's domestic violence, there's mental health, there is educational issues, there are job issues, there are housing issues. All of the determinants of health is the reason why you end up with a lot of shootings in neighborhoods. People are scrapping for scraps, that is literally what's happening, and we need to pay attention to that.”
Those speaking in gratitude for the state funding say it’s not only the money but the secured source from where it’s coming. Buffalo’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention was kickstarted with money from the Safer Communities Act, passed in 2022 and enacted by President Biden.
Zeller spoke of the importance of New York State providing support while the current federal government, he suggests, seems to be taking actions against New York.
“They've cut funding to lots of different groups, not just gun violence prevention, but supplemental food assistance, health care, they've cut a trillion and a half dollars across the state,” Zellner said. “So it's become more vital to have the resources from the State of New York come to our community than ever before. That's why we earmark this funding to go directly to this office, so we can keep up the good work for the programs that are really vital in the community right now.”
