Senator’s Bipartisan Safer Communities Act created a program to support Arizona’s crisis intervention programs and prevent gun violence– today’s announcement invests $6 million in these life-saving programs
WASHINGTON – Arizona senior Senator Kyrsten Sinema announced that $6 million from her Bipartisan Safer Communities Act is headed to Arizona to support crisis intervention programs designed to make communities safer by preventing gun violence and suicide. Sinema secured passage of her Bipartisan Safer Communities Act by a strong bipartisan Senate vote of 65-33.
“We’re saving lives through today’s investment in Arizona’s crisis intervention programs thanks to our Bipartisan Safer Communities law – giving peace of mind to Arizona families, boosting resources for those in need of help, and helping ensure our schools and neighborhoods are safe places to live and learn,” said Sinema.
This funding will support crisis intervention programs and gun violence reduction initiatives, such as drug, mental health and veterans’ treatment courts, behavior health deflection, and outpatient treatment centers. States with extreme risk protection order programs may use this funding to support those programs. Projects funded under this program will need to demonstrate that they safeguard the constitutional rights of an individual subject to a crisis intervention program.
In December, Sinema hosted a roundtable with local leaders at the Glendale City Court to discuss its new Veterans’ Treatment Court, which Sinema helped advance, and how her Bipartisan Safer Communities law supports such evidence-based approaches to reducing violence.
Sinema’s Bipartisan Safer Communities Act – law she championed with Republican Senators John Cornyn (Texas) and Thom Tillis (N.C.) and Democratic Senator Chris Murphy (Conn.) – supports state crisis intervention orders, invests in children and family mental health services, provides protections for victims of domestic violence, fuels school-based mental health and supportive services, strengthens school safety resources, and more.
Sinema, an experienced social worker who has taught at ASU’s School of Social Work for over 20 years, used her social work background when writing and negotiating the historic Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. In this historic law, Sinema closed the “boyfriend loophole” – preventing previously convicted physically abusive ex-boyfriends and stalkers from accessing guns.
Click HERE to view Senator Sinema’s speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate about the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
Click HERE for a one-pager of Sinema’s bipartisan legislation and HERE for the full text.