State AG Bonta Makes Push for Gun Violence Prevention in Oakland

State Attorney General Rob Bonta was in the East Bay on Tuesday to discuss gun violence prevention in Oakland, which just surpassed 100 homicides for the year.

Bonta was joined by state and local leaders, including Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf , district attorneys from Contra Costa and San Joaquin counties, and community leaders pushing to stem gun violence in the city. The move comes in the midst of one of the deadliest stretches in Oakland.

"We are all in this together. It is a state of emergency," said Bonta announcing the state is taking a leading role and touting the new Office of Gun Violence Prevention; the first in the nation working to prevent gun violence.

The office is using data to target gun crime hot zones and expand resources like red flag laws, which are already in place in San Diego, that allow firearms to be taken away from someone who is considered a safety risk.

"We will use the bully pulpit in our statewide leadership to encourage others, draw down resources for folks to use, share wit them a tool that they may not be aware of so they can use it to keep their community safe," Bonta said.

The press conference, which had been scheduled for months, focused on preventing and healing from gun violence. It came in the midst of escalating violence in the city including a mass school shooting that injured at least six people, and a birthday party shooting that killed two teen brothers and injured two other people.

Mayor Schaaf called on tougher federal gun laws and council to pass laws locally to help.

"We have to do better with what we have, we have to be smarter," he said. "I'm frustrated that our city council has not passed our vehicle license plate reader policy that would allow us to take advantage of technology in a way that does protect privacy."

District attorneys from Contra Costa and San Joaquin counties argue by the time a case gets to their desk, its too late. San Joaquin's DA Tori Verber Salazar is advocating to educate kids about guns to prevent them from using them.

"We need to give them the tools and resources to make better informed decisions," she said, "because we can arrest and we can prosecute those with our traditional tools that we have always had."

For survivors of violence like Tinisch Hollins this "is not being treated as a public health crisis that it really is."

Hollins believes solutions start with providing support for victims to prevent them from turning into those who commit crimes in the future.

"If we can do that we will see a reduction because we can prevent more trauma. We are going to create safer pathways for people to move to safety, we are going to arm people in the community who are already the peacekeepers," she explained.