State office to crack down on gun violence
California will soon be the only state in the nation to have a governmental office committed to preventing gun violence, state officials said Wednesday.
Standing outside the violence prevention organization, United Playaz on Howard Street in San Francisco, Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the state’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention, a first-of-its-kind unit that will work with multiple agencies to deal with the mounting issue of gun violence across the state.
“This is a moment of crisis in America,” said Bonta, who stood alongside other political leaders and multiple mothers of children who had perished from gun violence.
“This crisis demands more than thoughts and prayers ... it demands action now, and we are delivering.”
Working with federal, state and local partners, the office will promote research and data collection, support the Justice Department’s gun violence reduction efforts and look at a wide range of factors — from crisis prevention to firearm availability — to reduce gun violence.
Gun violence is still the leading cause of death for children in America. Though California has among the nation’s strictest gun laws, 3,449 Californians still died from bullets in 2020, said Laura Cutilletta, managing director of Giffords Law Center, a nonprofit that promotes gun safety legislation led by former Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was shot in the head in 2011.
Rudy Corpuz Jr., founder of United Playaz, who introduced the speakers, said he was shot near the location where the news conference took place.
“I got shot three blocks (away) from here, on 9th Street,” said Corpuz, who is also the organization’s executive director. “It takes the hood to save the hood.”
“This epidemic has paralyzed all of us and it has gotten out of control,” said Mattie Scott, the San Francisco chapter leader of Mothers-inCharge and San Francisco Brady California state president.
Scott’s youngest son — a 24-year-old father of two young sons — was shot and killed in 1996 while stopping an altercation at a graduation party in his neighborhood in San Francisco.
While holding up a photo of her late son, Scott lamented the recent Western Addition shooting that left two young men dead, along with the stream of gun violence over Labor Day weekend in Bayview-Hunters Point.
“Every time I hear of a mother losing her son or someone losing their mother ... it rattles my soul,” said Scott, who spoke alongside her 100-year-old mother. “I want to go to graduations, I don’t want to go to funerals. I’m tired of funerals.”
Assemblymember Mia Bonta, whose husband is the attorney general, also emphasized her commitment to establish legislation to end gun violence in California, calling the issue a “public health crisis,” with more than 300 mass shootings this year across the country alone.
“Each of these tragedies sits heavy on my heart,” said Bonta. “How many deaths will it take for us to take action?”
Earlier this year, Bonta introduced AB2253, the bill that would have established the office of gun violence prevention and served as a catalyst for the creation of the office her husband would eventually push forward.
“I thank the attorney general for this, my partner in life and partner in service and look forward to the collaboration that will come from this,” said Bonta.
Moms Demand Action volunteer Clare Senchyna noted the new mural of a man in a Giants cap that the speakers were standing in front of; it was her son, Camilo.
In 2014, 26-year-old Camilo Senchyna-Beltran was on his way home from celebrating his completion of paramedics school that day, when he was shot and killed by a stranger.
“His plan was to work for (the Fire Department),” said Senchyna, who also noted she would soon be moving out of San Francisco. “It’s too painful to walk by the schools he went to, the playgrounds he played in.”