Gun Violence Reduction Project

The County of San Diego wants to reduce gun violence. To better understand the impact gun violence is having on our communities and what solutions our communities would like to see, the County is conducting a gun violence community needs assessment. 

This assessment is being conducted between September 2022 - June 2023.

Through the assessment, we want to gather data and feedback from the community:

• Better understand the scope of gun violence in the region and communities/populations most impacted; 
• Identify existing resources within our communities and best practices in gun violence prevention, intervention, and aftercare/recovery;
• Identify gaps and challenges to reducing gun violence and community concerns;
• Facilitate alliance building and support shared learning and collaboration amongst those supporting gun violence prevention, intervention, and aftercare in the community;
• Produce key findings that can be used to develop strategies for continuing gun violence reduction efforts.

Within the context of this project, gun violence refers to all types of gun violence, including suicide; family, domestic partner, and intimate partner violence; and community violence. 

Gun Violence Reduction Advisory Group 

An important piece of the community needs assessment will be ongoing communication and collaboration with a Gun Violence Reduction Advisory Group which was formed in September 2022. The Advisory Group is expected to meet five times between September 2022 – April 2023. Members will provide input and feedback related to the creation of the community needs assessment, including community engagement strategy, survey development, planning and outreach for community listening sessions and forums, and recommendations for data and information that are gathered.

For more information on the Gun Violence Reduction Advisory Group and to view member biographies, visit Client Projects - Harc Data. 

Community Engagement

Community engagement is at the center of the needs assessment project. In November and December 2022, the County, in coordination with the Gun Violence Reduction Advisory Group and community partners hosted seven community listening sessions throughout the county to provide a space for residents to share their thoughts, experiences, perspectives and feedback about gun violence.

Comments and input provided during these listening sessions will be included in a final report that will be submitted to the Board of Supervisors at the conclusion of the project. 

Check out our online community engagement site to stay current on our Project's public forums and updates: Gun Violence Reduction Program | Engage San Diego County.

Community Survey

In addition to community listening sessions, surveys were also available to gather community input. Two surveys were used for this project: a community survey and a professional survey. The community survey was available for all residents of San Diego County to complete. The professional survey was designed to be completed by those who actively work with or for people impacted by gun violence in San Diego County. This may include a variety of professions, including healthcare, law enforcement, social work, research, and education. 

Surveys were available to complete between January 17 – February 24, 2023

Community Forums

The County of San Diego, in coordination with community partners, hosted three community forums to share preliminary findings from the County's gun violence community needs assessment. 

To view the community forum presentation, please click the link below. The presentation includes some preliminary findings from the community needs assessment. It's important to note that the forum does not include all areas of analysis from the assessment, but much of them. The full analysis will be available in the final report. 

Community Forum Presentation – English (click to open)

Community Forum Presentation – Spanish (click to open)

Please note: After this presentation was developed, the Medical Examiner’s Office made additional demographic data available related to sealed cases that lead to substantive changes to findings related to firearm-related suicide and homicide. Further analysis also led to refinement of firearm-related injury data. The data included in this Community Forum Presentation should not be used to draw conclusions, however, these data still provide key insights. The Final Report containing complete results from the community needs assessment will be available in early June 2023.  

Community Needs Assessment Final Report 

The Final Report containing complete results from the community needs assessment in early June 2023.

Commmunity Presentations

To share final results from the countywide gun violence community needs assessment, the County of San Diego will be hosting three community presentations in June 2023.

• June 6 from 6:00-7:30PM: San Marcos Community Center (Main Hall), 3 Civic Center Drive, San Marcos, CA 92069
• June 10 from 1:00-2:30PM: Norman Park Senior Center, 270 F Street, Chula Vista, CA 91910
• June 13 from 6:00-7:30PM: Virtual at https://tinyurl.com/GVRforum

Language interpretation services are available upon request. To request translation and interpretation services, please email dpolk@harcdata.org at least 72 hours in advance of the forum date. Interpretation services are available in the County's eight threshold languages (Spanish, Somali, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Korean, Persian (Dari and Farsi), Tagalog, and Vietnamese) as well as American Sign Language.

Project Background

On October 19, 2021, the Board of Supervisors directed the County’s Public Safety Group to research  gun violence reduction  programs.

For more information on this Board action:   October 19, 2021: Taking Ghost Guns Off Our Streets and Disrupting the Cycle of Violence Afflicting Our Communities

In response to the Board’s direction, the Public Safety Group led a Gun Violence Reduction Working Group in early 2022 to develop recommendations for Board consideration. The working group members consists of representatives  from community-based organizations that actively work in gun violence prevention, intervention, and aftercare (i.e., post-incident trauma recovery), as well as many  County of San Diego departments, centered around using a public health approach to address gun violence in our communities. The Working Group chose to consider all types of gun violence as part of this project to better understand the connections between the types, which includes community gun violence as well as suicide and domestic and family violence.

To define the scope and complexity of the gun violence problem in San Diego County, the recommendation from the Working Group was to conduct a contractor-led, regional gun violence community needs assessment.

On April 5, 2022, the Board of Supervisors approved the recommendations from the Working Group and authorized a competitive solicitation for a contractor to conduct a regional gun violence reduction community needs assessment.

For more information on this Board action: April 5, 2022: Gun Violence Reduction Program Update and Request to Issue a Competitive Solicitation for Community Needs Assessment

Program Timeline

• October 19, 2021, Board of Supervisors directs the Public Safety Group to research  gun violence reduction and disruption options
• January 25, 2022, Board of Supervisors approved ordinance related to non-serialized firearms, non-serialized unfinished firearm frames and receivers and safe storage of firearms
• April 5, 2022, Board of Supervisors approved the Gun Violence Reduction Working Group’s recommendation to conduct a regional gun violence community needs assessment
• July 27 – August 11, 2022, Conducted competitive solicitation for contractor to conduct a regional gun violence reduction community needs assessment
• August 31 – September 15, 2022, Gun Violence Reduction Advisory Group application window
• November 16 – January 6, 2023, Community Listening Sessions hosted throughout the county
• January 17 – February 24, 2023, Community and Professional Survey available for completion
• March 9 – March 14, 2023, Community Forums will be hosted throughout the county
• May – June 2023, Finalize the Community Needs Assessment and facilitate community presentations to share the final results with the public