Gavin Newsom triples funding to combat gun violence in updated Calif. budget – Washington Examiner

California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an updated state budget that calls for $27 million to go toward combating gun violence, triple the amount he originally suggested in January.

Newsom’s new budget would allocate the $27 million to the California Violence Intervention and Prevention Program, which allocates grants to cities and community-based groups that focus on eliminating violence. Last year, Newsom designated $9 million for the program and proposed the same amount when he first unveiled his budget.

Newsom’s revised budget attracted support from a California chapter of a gun reform group, Moms Demand Action. The groups claimed the grant program uses a “localized approach” to target gun violence in rough California neighborhoods.

“Gov. Newsom demonstrated today that he knows just how important community-based violence intervention programs are to saving lives in our communities,” Krystal Lopilato, a volunteer with Moms Demand Action in California, said in a statement. “This increased funding … will mean increased safety in the communities hardest hit by gun violence.”