[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 820 Introduced in House (IH)]
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117th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 820
Expressing support for the designation of May 18 as ``National Day of
Healing''.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
November 23, 2021
Mr. Bowman (for himself, Ms. Bass, Ms. Bush, and Mr. Rush) submitted
the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Energy
and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Education and Labor,
for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case
for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of
the committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing support for the designation of May 18 as ``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
Resolved, 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.
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