Trump administration terminates more than half of all federal funding for gun violence prevention programs in the U.S., cutting $158 million in grants that had been directed to groups in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, DC, and Baltimore

Gun control groups and the media are playing up these cuts to gun control groups after the shooting in New York City, but they were terminated in April. It is remarkable that Reuters relies on the Gun Violence Archive for its data on gun deaths rather than the FBI or the CDC.

. . . The elimination of CVI programs is part of a broader rollback at the department’s grant-issuing Office of Justice Programs, which terminated 365 grants valued at $811 million in April, impacting a range of public safety and victim services programs.

A DOJ official told Reuters the gun violence grants were eliminated because they “no longer effectuate the program’s goals or agency’s priorities.” Thousands of Office of Justice Programs grants are under review, the official said, and are being evaluated, among other things, on how well they support law enforcement and combat violent crime.

The majority of CVI grants were originally funded through the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and part of a push by former President Joe Biden to stem the rise of gun violence in America, including establishing the first White House Office for Gun Violence Prevention.

That office was “dismantled on day one” of Trump taking office, said former deputy director of the office, Greg Jackson Jr..

Prior to the Biden-era funding, most gun violence prevention programs were funded on the state level. . . .

Bianca Flowers, “Exclusive: Trump administration slashed federal funding for gun violence prevention,” Reuters, July 29, 2025.