Mayor Scott Attended Announcement at White House

BALTIMORE, MD (Saturday, September 23, 2023) – Yesterday, Mayor Brandon M. Scott joined elected officials, advocates, gun violence survivors, and their families at the White House for the announcement of the creation of the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention by President Joe Biden.

“The gun violence epidemic is a public health crisis that has touched nearly every family in our nation,” said Mayor Brandon M. Scott. “My personal experience witnessing gun violence in my community is part of what prompted me into public service, and at this week’s White House announcement, it was clear I was not the only one. Dismantling the forces that drive gun violence in our neighborhoods will take cooperation at every level of government and community. I commend President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and the White House on taking this critically important step. This Administration has always been a partner in tackling the nationwide epidemic we face, but there is still a long way to go and I’m looking forward to continuing to work with this new White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention to continue making our communities safer every day."

Mayor Scott has long been an advocate for gun violence prevention at the national level. Mayor Scott has worked alongside several of the leaders of the new gun violence office to stand up the city's community violence intervention ecosystem and to advocate for national policy reforms. 

In Baltimore, through the creation of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) and the implementation of the Comprehensive Violence Reduction Strategy and the Group Violence Reduction Strategy (GVRS), Mayor Scott has sought to tackle the impact of gun violence at the local level and made Baltimore a model for community violence intervention (CVI) nationwide. As part of those efforts, to date this year, Baltimore is experiencing a more than 20 percent reduction in homicides and has removed more than 2100 illegal guns off the street, including 340 “ghost guns.”