Buffalo City Council Member Seeks to Create Gun Violence Prevention Office

Zeneta Everhart, whose son Zaire Goodman was injured in the racist massacre on May 14, 2022, announced plans to create a new office at City Hall tasked with providing support to families affected by gun violence, implementing evidence-based interventions and facilitating community engagement while working with law enforcement to help them better track illegal firearms.

Flanked by other lawmakers, including Common Council Speaker Christopher Scanlon and Council members Leah Halton-Pope and Mitch Nowakowski, and leaders of community anti-violence groups, Everhart said the city is not doing enough to coordinate efforts to combat gun violence.

The Tops mass shooting, which killed 10 people, was a catalyst for the creation of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, but the city still does not have a similar office, she added.

“The city of Buffalo obviously played a major role (in creating the federal office),” she said. “But we didn’t take on that challenge ourselves.”

Everhart, who won her Masten District council seat last year, said Buffalo police had to respond to a man with a gun on her street last weekend and she is tired of constantly having to talk about gun violence in the community.

“I can truly say that our community deserves better, and it has to start within government,” she said.

A bill to create the office is on the Council agenda Tuesday. Everhart says he has the support to pass his bill, with members David Rivera and Rasheed Wyatt telling him they will vote for the measure. But it will need to pass committee before it can be brought to the full House for a vote.

The resolution, which calls for the office to open by Dec. 31, cites the Tops massacre and two high-profile child killings in Buffalo this year as examples of the urgent need for a city office to help coordinate gun violence prevention efforts.

The number of shootings in the city is down 10% this year compared to the same period last year and down 39% from the five-year average. The number of shooting victims is up 1% since the beginning of the year but down 37% from the five-year average, according to Buffalo Police Department statistics.

However, the number of gun deaths increased 21%, from 14 in 2023 to 17 in 2024 through the beginning of July. The shooting deaths of Jazzmine Fomby, 14, on May 4, and Ramone Carter, 3, on June 21, mark a particularly deadly first half of the year for the city’s children.

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said he welcomes all efforts to curb gun violence in the city and would work with Everhart and the council to establish the office if the bill passes.

“We are committed to doing more and are always looking for new ways to make our city safer and improve the quality of life,” he said.

Brown said the city’s work with anti-violence groups over the years and the adoption of best practices within the police department for gun violence prevention have played a significant role in the decrease in gun violence throughout his tenure and especially in recent years.

“A lot of the things that are being done are being done by different departments, but we will have an Office of Gun Violence Prevention that will work and partner with all of the initiatives that are currently happening within city government and in the community,” Brown said.

Everhart said she is working with Brown and has spoken with officials from the federal Office of Gun Violence Prevention to secure more grants for prevention efforts.

Brown also highlighted his administration’s expansion of the grant-writing department, which will help the new office actively seek more federal funding.

“We’re going to focus on grants,” Brown said. “We’ve talked to the White House Office on Gun Violence Prevention about our willingness to actively pursue available grants for that purpose.”