(NewsNation) — President Joe Biden on Thursday will outline his anti-crime program in Pennsylvania, where he’ll discuss how to spend roughly $37 billion for fighting and preventing crime and how he wants to build on the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
This comes as Philadelphia is in the middle of a gun violence crisis. This week, the city reached a grim milestone and could surpass the homicide toll of 2021 if things continue.
So far in 2022, 300 homicides have occurred; 273 victims died from gun violence.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said the city is flooded with illegal guns.
“The fact that our city has lost 300 souls to date this year is devastating,” Kenney said. “The police department continues to investigate these crimes and take a record number of illegal firearms off our streets, but they need the public’s help to solve these crimes.”
In 2021, 562 people were murdered in Philadelphia — the most murders in the city since 1960. This year the city is on pace to exceed last year’s murder count.
Philadelphia has spent millions on antiviolence programs, increased patrols in high crime areas, enforced a curfew to get young people off the streets at night and tried gun buy-back programs. However, it remains a city caught in a gun violence crisis as residents hope and pray for the violence to end and the killings to stop.
Meanwhile, Kenney is being criticized for not personally meeting with any of the relatives of the 300 killed so far this year.
“It’s not something that I’ve done from the time I started being mayor; I don’t if any mayor has done it,” he said.
This criticism comes after comments he made following the city’s violent Independence Day weekend.
“I’m waiting for something bad to happen all the time, so I will be happy when I’m not mayor, and I can enjoy some stuff,” Kenney said at a press conference following the July 4 shooting.
Many people took offense to those comments and said they believe he’s not interested in improving gun violence in Philadelphia. Kenney has since apologized and reassured Philadelphians he’ll do everything he can to help keep the city safe.