Leaders of several East Bay cities gathered with gun violence prevention experts in Oakland for a day-long conference on Friday.
Convened by Mayor Barbara Lee, the gathering focused on two central themes: collaboration at a regional level to address gun violence, and focusing on the supply side of the problem — the flow of illegal firearms on the streets of cities like Oakland.
“Cities across the Bay Area have experienced drastic drops in violent crime recently, over the last year, a testament to the powerful work by the officials here and communities around the region. This, however, remains true: gun violence continues to devastate far too many communities and families across the Bay Area,” said Kris Brown, president of the gun violence prevention group Brady, at a press conference before the gathering.
Lee said she worked with Brown for many years in Washington D.C. on bills aimed at stopping gun violence, including unsuccessful efforts at repealing the Tiahrt Amendment, a law that restricts the ability of law enforcement to share gun tracing data showing the sources of firearms used in crimes. One success, said Lee, was having the U.S. surgeon general designate gun violence as a public health issue last year.
Friday’s gathering, inside the Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts, brought together the mayors of Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond, Vallejo, Antioch, Stockton, and San Leandro, along with Brady and the California Wellness Foundation.
Discussions scheduled for the day included topics like “Disrupting the Illegal Firearm Supply” and “Gun Industry Accountability Implementation.”
Vallejo Mayor Andrea Sorce said that when a child was shot in her city in January, she was determined not to let high levels of gun violence be normalized. “We have to deal with the source, the supply of guns,” she said.
Berkeley Mayor Adena Ishii said she recently received a letter from a child who witnessed a shooting near their elementary school. The child wrote about being scared to witness the violence and having to be rushed into the building in search of safety.
“We need the community pulling together and identifying the problem source,” said Richmond Mayor Eduardo Martinez. “We know the source is guns coming into the community.”
Lee said the main goal was to bring regional leaders together to start a collaboration that can address the problem beyond single cities. “We’re going to be the leaders in the gun violence public health strategy, with regional partners,” she said.
Staff from Oakland’s police and violence prevention departments were on hand, as were violence prevention workers from other cities.
Lee said the group will report back on their goals and plans at a later date.
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