The Bush Administration has devoted approximately $2 billion to PSN since its inception in 2001. Funds are used to employ new federal and state prosecutors, support investigations, provide training opportunities, distribute gun lock safety kits, deter juvenile gun crime and gang involvement, support research and evaluation efforts, develop and promote community outreach efforts, and support other gun and gang violence reduction strategies. PSN is the nation's largest and most visible effort to combat violent crime and criminal gang activity at the community level. This targeted initiative has become one of the administration's most significant anti-crime initiatives and is achieving impressive results.

The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), a component of the Department of Justice's (DOJ) Office of Justice Programs, administers PSN grant funding. The first grant was awarded in FY 2001 as a state and local gun prosecutor hiring program. As the PSN model was further developed, emphasis was placed on providing funding to support the core components of PSN. This included funding a research partner/crime analyst and a media outreach/community engagement partner in each of the 94 districts. In addition, the Reducing Community Gun Violence program competition helped solicit new ideas from the field, and Project Sentry provided funding to address juvenile gun crime in targeted regions. Once the core implementation functions were funded for each district's gun crime reduction strategy, BJA began providing funds directly to fiscal agents selected by the PSN task forces through a population- and crime-based allocation system.

Funds are used to hire and train new assistant U.S. Attorneys to exclusively prosecute gun-related criminal cases, and new state and local prosecutors to assist federal law enforcement agencies with these cases; update and automate state criminal history records; expand the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' computerized ballistics technology; create a nationwide tracing system; prevent gang involvement; and enforce and prosecute gang crime. In addition, Project ChildSafe®, a separate program under PSN, distributes safety kits nationwide that include cable-style gun locks and educational materials on safe gun storage.

In FY 2006 Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales announced an expansion of PSN to include new and enhanced anti-gang efforts. Funds from the Anti-Gang Initiative enhance PSN task force efforts to combat gangs by building on effective PSN strategies and partnerships. Both PSN and the Anti-Gang Initiative allow districts to tailor their individual strategies to target local issues and to implement programs to meet local needs.

The Attorney General announced in FY 2006 the establishment of Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiatives in the cities of Los Angeles, Tampa, Cleveland, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Milwaukee, and the "222 Corridor" that stretches from Easton to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. The Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative uses fundamental prevention, prosecution, and prisoner re-entry strategies in the fight against gangs. In FY 2007 the Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative was expanded to Rochester, Oklahoma City, Indianapolis, and Raleigh-Durham. The ten Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative sites received $25 million in FY 2006 and FY 2007 to continue their efforts.

DOJ awarded $18.9 million to fund current and expanded comprehensive gun crime reduction strategies in FY 2007. DOJ also awarded $31.7 million through the Anti-Gang Initiative to fund new and expanded anti-gang prevention and enforcement efforts under PSN. Through the development of district-wide comprehensive strategies, U.S. Attorneys in each of the 94 federal judicial districts partner with local law enforcement officials and other members of the PSN task force to develop strategies based upon the five primary components of PSN—partnerships, strategic planning, training, outreach, and accountability.

Additional information on PSN grant opportunities can be found at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/BJA/grant/psn.html.

For information on all available funding opportunities from the Office of Justice Programs, please visit http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/funding/solicitations.htm.