Funding for gun violence prevention

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10)-- Governor Kathy Hochul was in New York City on Thursday to announce funding for gun violence prevention programs.

"We have a gun violence epidemic here in the State of New York. Full stop," said Governor Hochul. "That is a statement of fact."

In an effort alleviate this problem, $220 million was allocated in the New York State budget for gun violence prevention.

"$20 million dollars that we are investing in SNUG type programs, as well as money for law enforcement for retraining and to help them have strategies to reduce crime. We are better off when we are partnering together to reduce crime overall."

New York is teaming up with other nearby states to help stop the flow of illegal guns from crossing state lines. The Governor announced $15 million dollars that will be dedicated to crime analysis centers to do just that.

"So we have to have the intelligence gathering and not work in silos where NYPD does their thing and New York State does their thing, and NJ does theirs. I brought them all together and said for the first time ever, we are going to have 9 states around us who are all tracking together."

She said just in the last six months alone, there are more guns off the streets than there have been in 20 years.

A fund of $13.6 million will go towards helping those suffering from trauma and grief, as well as for funding parts of the state that are seeing a rise in gun violence.

"Which we have numbers. We track the data. We know where the cases are happening. We have over 30 non-profits and hospitals and what we are going to be doing, which I think is phenomenal, we are going to be hiring over 150 more what we call, incredible messengers."

A $2 million emergency fund will also go towards helping victims and the Office of Gun Violence and Coordination.