Ballmer crafts new funding strategy to confront gun violence

By GLENN GAMBOA
AP Business Writer

Gun violence in America is a public health crisis that is worsening with pandemic-like speed. So says Steve Ballmer, the billionaire philanthropist whose nonprofit is devising a new remedy to address it. Even with COVID-19 lockdowns, deaths caused by gun violence in America jumped 30% from 2019 to 2020, the year the pandemic struck, according to the Gun Violence Archive. To help communities, the Ballmer Group donated $18 million to the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention, the Community Based Public Safety Collective, Cities United and the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform to jointly establish community-based solutions to gun violence.