Expressing support for the designation of May 18 as "National Day of Healing".

National Day of Healing Whereas violence of all forms represents a public health crisis that demands an immediate, holistic, and healing-focused response from the Federal Government; Whereas the prevalence of violence has increased significantly during the pandemic with over 1,270,000 violent crimes reported in 2020, including a— (1) 29.4-percent increase in the number of murders and nonnegligent manslaughters; (2) 12.1-percent increase in the number of aggravated assaults; and (3) 4.6-percent increase in the number of violent crimes per capita; Whereas, in the United States, about 12 people are killed with guns for every 100,000 United States residents; Whereas the gun suicide rate in the United States is 10 times that of other high-income countries, and individuals with access to a gun are 3 times as likely to die by suicide, including veterans who are twice as likely to own a gun; Whereas the majority of gun fatalities in the United States are deaths by suicide (61 percent), and guns are used in just over half of the deaths by suicide in the United States (51 percent); Whereas just over 1 in 6 people will self-harm during his or her lifetime, on average starting at age 13; Whereas 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men have experienced severe physical violence at the hands of an intimate partner in their lifetimes; Whereas intimate partner violence has become the pandemic within the pandemic, with the isolation associated with public safety protocols making it more difficult to detect and prevent situations of domestic violence; Whereas nearly 10 percent of high school students have reported experiencing intimate partner violence in the last year; Whereas more than 1 in 3 women and nearly 1 in 4 men have experienced sexual violence involving physical contact during their lifetimes; Whereas gender-based violence continues to rise as 2020 marked the worst year of violence against transgender and gender nonconforming people on record; Whereas 15 to 20 percent of college women report experiencing rape or attempted rape during their college careers, and over 50 percent report experiencing some form of unwanted sexual contact; Whereas racial and ethnic minority women, transgender and gender nonconforming college students, and students with disabilities are at higher risk or report higher levels of assault and harassment; Whereas 34 percent of college students who experience sexual assault drop out of college; Whereas nearly 700,000 children experience abuse annually in the United States, with approximately 65 percent of cases involving sexual abuse and 21 percent involving physical abuse; Whereas people with severe mental illnesses are 11 times more likely to be victims of violent crime than the general population; Whereas exposure to violence can cause significant psychological trauma for individuals and communities; Whereas a large majority of adults in the United States experience stress associated with mass shootings, and a third of United States adults say that fear of mass shootings stops them from going to certain places and events; Whereas traumatic experiences, especially adverse childhood experiences, can have lasting negative health implications for individuals, including higher rates of mental health conditions and substance use; Whereas a total of 68,286 public school children were subject to corporal punishment in the 2017 to 2018 school year, with Black students and students with disabilities disproportionately being corporally punished; Whereas corporal punishment in schools is ineffective, interferes with learning, and causes injury and trauma; Whereas cognitive behavioral therapy, especially when focused on trauma specifically, has shown promising results helping individuals heal from exposure to violence; Whereas communities require the resources necessary to properly heal and recover from the trauma caused by violence; Whereas unchecked rises in violence create a vicious cycle that entrenches the conditions that cause violence; Whereas nonviolent, evidence-based, community-based solutions to violence prevention and intervention can effectively promote public safety, with methods including but not limited to— (1) violence intervention and prevention programs that help deescalate violent situations and work to prevent situations from becoming violent in the first place; (2) hospital-based violence prevention programs that provide wraparound services to victims to help mitigate the risk of reinjury or retaliatory violence; (3) group violence intervention that uses partnerships between community leaders, social service providers, and law enforcement to identify high-risk individuals and work with them to avoid violent outcomes; (4) trauma-informed cognitive behavioral therapy; and (5) replacing exclusionary, punitive discipline practices in schools, which perpetuate the school-to-prison pipeline, with positive, restorative, nonadversarial alternatives; Whereas a spike in gun violence has widespread negative economic implications for a community, including declining business formation, fewer available jobs, plummeting property values, lower home ownership rates, and declining average credit scores; Whereas the rise in violence represents a preventable public health crisis that can be combated by sending resources to local communities to address the underlying causes of violence, including but not limited to poverty, housing insecurity, food insecurity, education, and limited access to mental health care; and Whereas the aftermath of gun violence costs communities $280,000,000,000 annually, which could otherwise be used to provide resources and services that address the root causes of violence: Now, therefore, be it That the House of Representatives— (1) expresses support for the designation of National Day of Healing (2) calls on the people of the United States and interested groups to commemorate and demonstrate solidarity with families and communities who have lost family and community members to violence to raise awareness about the moral imperative to eliminate community violence of all kinds; (3) recognizes that the rise of community violence is a public health crisis that demands a public health response; and (4) acknowledges that the Federal Government has a responsibility to execute this public health response across a holistic spectrum of healing, and this response should include trauma-informed mental health care and counseling, school- and campus-based mental health services, hospital-based violence screening and intervention, violence interruption, conflict mediation, restorative measures for conflict resolution, community outreach, other evidence-based, community-led interventions, and targeted research to bring to scale and enhance effectiveness of interventions.

Summary: This resolution expresses support for designating a National Day of Healing and recognizes community violence as a public health crisis.