Congressman Mark DeSaulnier held a town hall meeting Saturday where East Bay community members sought solutions to gun violence.
It was a full house at Stanley Middle School in Lafayette where one topic took center stage — gun violence prevention laws.
DeSaulnier ensured it included banning assault weapons across the country, instituting government buy-backs and the destruction of banned weapons.
"There have been over 300 gun violence bills introduced, none of them have had a hearing or a vote," DeSaulnier said. "We need to have a hearing and a vote."
DeSaulnier says the meeting was moved up on the calendar after the school shooting in Florida. He shared statistics and told the crowd that he earned a lifetime "F" rating from the National Rifle Association because of his policies.
Many of the attendees brought up President Trump’s recent tweet on the possibility of giving guns to teachers with military training or experience. They expressed their concern and claimed it wouldn’t be a solution to gun violence.
"I think they should make the law harder to get guns," said a student at the meeting.
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Members with opposing views also attended the meeting. Community member Brad Fell did not agree with much of what was said.
"It’s harder to buy a gun nowadays but we see these mass shootings and all these problems," Fell said. "Why don’t we look at the root of the problem and figure out why people are doing this instead of blaming gun owners?"
Everyone let the meeting with one thing in mind: a needed action from Washington.
