Oh please, not again… (32 mass shootings in California in 2018)

By Roger Straw, November 8, 2018
[See also, Gun Control Links, from last May.  – R.S.]

Respectfully and profoundly, the Thousand Oaks, CA mass shooting is first and foremost about human lives, carnage, grieving, bullets and fear.

THE NUMBERS aren’t nearly as staggering as the personal loss and our common grieving.  But the numbers tell the larger story of legislative and executive governmental inaction.  The numbers may not have the passion, but they have the fact-based, incontrovertible, insistent, deadly proof that sensible gun control in the U.S. is needed NOW and long overdue.

California has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation.  And yet, California recorded 32 mass shootings in the first 312 days of 2018, one every 10 days.  49 individuals are dead with grieving families and friends.  Another 131 were injured.  (Mass shooting is defined here as 4 or more shot or killed, not including the shooter).

Nationally in 2018 to date, there have been  307 mass shootings, (just shy of ONE EVERY DAY), killing 328 (OVER ONE A DAY) and injuring another 1251 (OVER FOUR EVERY DAY).

These numbers are a call to action:

MASS SHOOTINGS IN 2018 – CALIFORNIA
Incident Date City Or County # Killed # Injured
Source: gunviolencearchive.org/ (GVA defines mass shootings based on the numeric value of 4 or more shot or killed, not including the shooter.)
7-Nov-18 Thousand Oaks 13 10
2-Nov-18 Long Beach (North Long Beach) 0 4
30-Oct-18 Vallejo 2 3
30-Oct-18 Los Angeles 0 5
29-Oct-18 Riverside 0 7
14-Oct-18 Palo Alto (East Palo Alto) 2 2
6-Oct-18 Oakland 0 6
30-Sep-18 Compton 1 3
23-Sep-18 Bakersfield 1 4
23-Sep-18 Baldwin Park 0 4
12-Sep-18 Bakersfield 6 0
2-Sep-18 San Bernardino 0 8
12-Aug-18 Clearlake 4 1
11-Aug-18 San Francisco 1 4
31-Jul-18 Gardena 2 3
28-Jul-18 Los Angeles 2 4
26-Jul-18 Oakland 2 2
5-Jul-18 Los Angeles 3 3
27-Jun-18 Oakland 1 3
21-Jun-18 San Bernardino 1 3
20-Jun-18 Modesto 0 5
14-Jun-18 Union City 0 5
14-Jun-18 Tracy 1 4
10-Jun-18 Valley Village 0 6
13-May-18 Stockton 3 2
13-May-18 Los Angeles 2 2
7-May-18 San Diego 0 5
20-Apr-18 San Francisco 1 5
9-Apr-18 Vallejo 0 4
21-Mar-18 San Francisco 1 5
12-Mar-18 Modesto 0 4
27-Jan-18 Los Angeles 0 5
TOTAL 49 131

What do do?  Protest in the streets, phone and write our state and national elected officials.  Weep.  Try like mad to stay hopeful…

Roger Straw
Benicia, California