By Mary Alice Miller

Assemblymember Monique Chandler-Waterman recently announced a permanent New York State Office for Gun Violence Prevention at her Public Safety annual Public Safety Community Taskforce Meeting. The statewide office and an expansion of victim services were codified into law in the 2026 NYS budget.

Chandler-Waterman in the Assembly and Zellnor Myrie in the Senate both introduced the bill.

“The governor saw it, liked it, and took the language in our bill and put it in the budget,” said Chandler-Waterman. “We authored the bill with advocates and our community members. The legislation developed from a collaboration with her district-based monthly public safety task force and a roundtable discussion in Albany in which stakeholders from agencies all around the state, community-based organizations, and survivors, all come together to discuss what they wanted a permanent office of gun violence prevention to do.

“We meet once a month and discuss priorities and what the needs are in the community. That collaborative work is what got the language,” said Chandler-Waterman. “Zellnor and I were able to advocate for it and get it put in the budget. And now it is law.”

“Unfortunately,” lamented Chandler-Waterman, “we have too much gun violence.”

The Assemblywoman spoke of the citywide impact of a New Year’s celebration in which ten people were shot in Queens. That incident in Queens had connections in Brooklyn, the Bronx and other boroughs.

“So, I put together with my taskforce a city/state collaboration and notified all the elected officials that those victims came from their district,” she said. “That is something this Office of Gun Violence Prevention will do on its own in collaboration with our elected officials.”

Hidden in the plethora of executive orders that Trump signed on the first day of his second term was the elimination of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention that was established under President Biden.

On April 23, the U.S. Dept. of Justice cut funds to non-profits on the ground doing anti-violence work, including hospitals, who are responding to violence.

“They cut the funding in the middle of the contract,” Chandler-Waterman said.

The purpose of the NYS Office of Gun Violence Prevention is multifold. Part of its function is to make sure it gets funds and grants to the people on the ground who are doing the cure violence work. The office will also engage in data collection, analysis, public education, and collaborate with stakeholders (community members, community-based organizations and state and local agencies) to provide recommendations on how to reduce gun violence.

When a mass shooting occurs, by federal definition four or more people murdered by gun violence, the incident activates resources for that community. But when injuries, not murder occur, those resources were not available.

To solve this problem and address the needs of injured gun violence survivors, Chandler-Waterman and Myrie created a new term: Mass Gun Violence. Mass gun violence, codified into law, means three or more injured or three or more people injured within seven days in multiple shooting incidents that are related to each other.

A mass gun violence incident would activate the NYS Office of Gun Violence Prevention to coordinate stakeholders to respond and address community needs.

Chandler-Waterman said that during roundtable taskforce discussions, “Survivors felt like when you take out the word injured from mass shooting, they don’t care about the survivors. It shows that they don’t care. Survivors have been known to clean up the blood of their loved ones.” 

Some survivors don’t even know that there is an office of victim services, so they don’t even get the services they are eligible for.

“We put into legislation that under the Office of Victim Services burial will be raised from $6,000 to $12,000 because no burial costs $6,000. We got that passed in the budget,” said Chandler-Waterman.

“Then we also wanted to make sure that there is no judgement,” she added. “If you are contributory to your injury or your death often people say you are a gang member even if you are not. And once that is said you are judged. You will not be able to get the fullness of compensation. They may reduce or reject you, nine times out of ten they reject it.”

She continued, “So with this bill that the governor included in the budget, if you are murdered then your family will be able to get the full benefits.”

Also, now an individual who pays for crime scene cleanup can get reimbursed for that cleanup service. And there is an intentional expansion of services related to location, transportation, lost wages, and property damage.

They were able to get $25 million, a five-year commitment of five million a year for gun violence prevention that goes from the state directly to the city (DYEP) to help with cure violence groups and crisis management.

Clergy got $1.5 million of that money because clergy and pastors are part of anti-violence work, too.

It also provides technical assistance, support, it helps them build capacity across the board across the five boroughs in the city.

Your vital voice can be so important to change law and to make sure things are happening better.

And no one else has to go through what they are going through. Some people feel hopeless or that nothing is going to change.

Taskforce model is individuals lived experiences, volunteers from the district, those who work in my district as well come together and set priorities for my district. I listen to their voices to pass legislation.

They also help with funding. “Public safety is a shared responsibility between agencies, community members and elected officials,” she said.