Lt. Governor Austin Davis shakes hands with county officials during his Safer Communities tour Friday, July 14, 2023, at Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley in Allentown. Davis highlighted local initiatives funded by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) that are helping to address gun violence and make Pennsylvania communities safer. (Rebecca Villagracia/The Morning Call)
Gun violence is a statewide problem, a difficult one to solve, but one that communities can solve by coming together and addressing root causes.
That’s what Lt. Gov. Austin Davis wanted attendees to take away during his visit to Allentown Friday morning.
“Our children are counting on us to get this done,” he said.
Davis spoke at the Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley location as part of his statewide “Safer Communities” tour, having already visited Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and intending to continue in Wilkes-Barre and Erie. The tour highlights local initiatives funded by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, of which Davis is the chair.
“Our partnership with Lehigh Valley Hospital has made it possible, and with our funds from the PCCD, [have] made it possible to change lives,” Promise Neighborhoods member Jeani Garcia said Friday. “Not just to respond to gun violence, but to prevent gun violence.”
Lt. Governor Austin Davis shakes hands with county officials during his Safer Communities tour Friday, July 14, 2023, at Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley in Allentown. Davis highlighted local initiatives funded by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) that are helping to address gun violence and make Pennsylvania communities safer. (Rebecca Villagracia/The Morning Call)
Audience members listen to Dr. Mark Cipolle, chief of the Division of Trauma of the Lehigh Valley Health Network, during the Safer Communities tour Friday, July 14, 2023, at Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley in Allentown. Lt. Governor Austin Davis highlighted local initiatives funded by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) that are helping to address gun violence and make Pennsylvania communities safer. (Rebecca Villagracia/The Morning Call)
Audience members listen to Jeani Garcia of Promise Neighborhoods during the Safer Communities tour Friday, July 14, 2023, at Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley in Allentown. Lt. Governor Austin Davis highlighted local initiatives funded by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) that are helping to address gun violence and make Pennsylvania communities safer. (Rebecca Villagracia/The Morning Call)
Lt. Governor Austin Davis speaks to the audience during his Safer Communities tour Friday, July 14, 2023, at Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley in Allentown. Davis highlighted local initiatives funded by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) that are helping to address gun violence and make Pennsylvania communities safer. (Rebecca Villagracia/The Morning Call)
Lt. Governor Austin Davis speaks to the audience during his Safer Communities tour Friday, July 14, 2023, at Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley in Allentown. Davis highlighted local initiatives funded by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) that are helping to address gun violence and make Pennsylvania communities safer. (Rebecca Villagracia/The Morning Call)
Melissa Mee, violence prevention coordinator for the Lehigh Valley Health Network, speaks to the audience during the Safer Communities tour Friday, July 14, 2023, at Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley in Allentown. Lt. Governor Austin Davis highlighted local initiatives funded by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) that are helping to address gun violence and make Pennsylvania communities safer. (Rebecca Villagracia/The Morning Call)
Dr. Mark Cipolle, chief of the Division of Trauma of the Lehigh Valley Health Network, speaks to the audience during the Safer Communities tour Friday, July 14, 2023, at Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley in Allentown. Lt. Governor Austin Davis highlighted local initiatives funded by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) that are helping to address gun violence and make Pennsylvania communities safer. (Rebecca Villagracia/The Morning Call)
Lt. Governor Austin Davis speaks to the audience during his Safer Communities tour Friday, July 14, 2023, at Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley in Allentown. Davis highlighted local initiatives funded by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) that are helping to address gun violence and make Pennsylvania communities safer. (Rebecca Villagracia/The Morning Call)
Lt. Governor Austin Davis stands with speakers and county officials during the Safer Communities tour Friday, July 14, 2023, at Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley in Allentown. Davis highlighted local initiatives funded by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) that are helping to address gun violence and make Pennsylvania communities safer. (Rebecca Villagracia/The Morning Call)
Davis affirmed his and Gov. Josh Shapiro’s commitment to ending gun violence, adding that every community member deserves to feel safe. Solutions such as addressing poverty, providing education and enacting gun reform laws such as universal background checks would make the state closer to that goal, he said.
“The reality is unless we deal with these laws on the books … we’re going to continue to see the violence plague our communities,” he said.
Speakers joining Davis and Garcia at the press conference included Lehigh Valley Health Network Trauma Division Chief Mark Cipolle and LVHN Violence Prevention Coordinator Melissa Mee.
Cipolle said treating victims’ injuries from gun violence is only treating the symptoms of the larger public health problem, adding that the goal must be to go beyond the doors of the hospital so that victims can leave the hospital and not return.
“Breaking this cycle of violence, especially gun violence, is difficult,” he said. “It happens one person, one family, one neighborhood and a time.”
Mee’s spends time with victims of violence as a while they’re physically recovering, with the hope being to connect those victims with resources of support available in the community.
“No two violence victims are the same,” she said. “Though their circumstances are different, there is one constant: letting them know that they’re valued and that there is a way forward.”
