Community firearm violence can be generally described as deliberate acts of interpersonal violence in public spaces by a person or persons not intimately related to the victim. This type of firearm violence occurs in a small number of neighborhoods among a small number of individuals. In Washington and elsewhere, community gun violence has a dramatically disproportionate impact on young boys and men in urban communities of color.

Since the office was launched, OFSVP has distributed grant funds to support local efforts to reduce community gun violence through planning, prevention and intervention programming in communities throughout Washington. Intervention strategies are more immediate and interface with the populations and communities at highest risk for being victims or perpetrators of firearm violence. Prevention strategies have a broader reach and touch at risk populations who may not yet – but could be anticipated to be – engaged in firearm violence. Community gun violence is a very particular problem with an increasing number of emerging data-based mitigation measures.

The cost of effective prevention and intervention is small compared with the taxpayer-funded healthcare and law enforcement costs associated with community gun violence. (The Economic Cost of Gun Violence | Everytown Research & Policy).