The Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners convened on June 4, 2024, at 9:30 a.m. in the Commission Chambers. The board honored local figures, held public hearings, approved a mid-year budget amendment, and acted on a range of resolutions and ordinances, including a major County property purchase and a resolution addressing 5G infrastructure preemption.
I'm Oliver Gilbert, the chairman of the Board of County Commissioners here in Miami Dade County and the County Commissioner for District One. This the portion of our agenda where we recognize organizations, uh events, days, and very, very, very special people. We're going to turn, we're gonna have a presentation uh about gun violence awareness. That's our first presentation. For that presentation, I'm gonna recognize our mayor, Daniela Levine Kava. Okay. Well, today is the day that is set aside for us to show that we detest gun violence. But guess what? We have to be on that issue all year long. You know, I have the distinct uh responsibility and uh burden, I'll call it, to get the news whenever there is gun violence in Miami Dade County. So the police department informs me of all incidents and my heart breaks each and every time. So we know as a society, guns have become so commonplace. People are resolving their disputes with guns, and uh horrifying as well is that I understand approximately half of the deaths from gun violence are from suicide, maybe not so well known. So we know that mental illness is a crisis in our society today, especially post-pandemic. People are still uh lingering, and we had the huge NAMI walk that was unprecedented number of people coming out supporting more services for those who are struggling with mental health concerns, and we know that uh guns are getting in the hands of people who are not really the best to have them. And so we uh we stand united uh to to recognize today as the day in which we vow to end gun violence. So we want to thank uh those who've come, and we have uh a proclamation as well. We can bring the proclamation over. I I'll just add this. Listen, there are things that we struggle with as a community that it's hard for us to stop. It's hard for us to stop cancer, for instance. That's a disease that kills people. But it's not gun violence. Gun violence is something we get to choose to stop. People possess guns because we allow them to possess guns. They aren't punished properly because we allow that. What we we need to develop a healthier, more robust value of life and not just our lives, everyone's life. Because when you see the carnage that weapons create in this community, it it has to stop. And we're not even close to being the worst in the country. This is a problem that we can deal with as a community. We can insist on better. We can insist on more programs for kids so they never pick up a gun. We can insist on harsher punishments for people who pick up guns. We can do those things, and we should. We dedicate this moment, this day to gun violence awareness because sometimes it we we become numb to it. And so you see it on Channel 7 and Channel 6, and you see it on the cover of the Herald, and it's just another person shot, and it doesn't affect you, it does not affect you. But in truth, every death affects us all. And we want to give a shout out to all of those who work to prevent people from getting access to guns who shouldn't have it or escalating conflict to the point of gun violence, but especially to our first responders, our law enforcement officers, our fire rescue teams who have done so much to make us one of the safety safest metropolitan areas in the entire country. So I want to say thank you. Well, good morning, everybody. Um to um the ladies from Gifford's and also the ladies from Mom's Demand Action. Gun violence, as the chairman said, is come is preventable. This is a uniquely American problem. There are too many guns in the hands of too many people who are not going through background checks. They are the wrong types of guns. There are guns that can outgun our police department as ably and as caply as they serve to protect us. Thank you for standing up and advocating for the kinds of common sense gun laws that we need in this country that respect the Second Amendment but respect human lives in every single neighborhood. And what you have done for me in some ways is a real blessing, but it's also um it's hard. Probably one third of my friendship circle is someone who has lost someone to gun violence. So that is what a difference you have made in my life by introducing me to the stories of how lives are changed and ruined, but also activated to make not just our community a better place, but America a better place.