SAN FRANCISCO — The nation has recently seen a rise in mass shootings.
In Southern California last month, an alleged suspect went on a shooting rampage in the city of Orange killing four people. Last week, a man killed eight people at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis — the deadliest workplace shooting in over a year. President Biden is now demanding that Congress act.
One mother in San Francisco has fought against gun violence for over two decades. Her journey started after she lost her son, George, who was shot and killed at 24 years old, some 25 years ago at a graduation party.
“He was always laughing, that smile, the jokester,” Scott said as she looked down at his old pictures. “They’re hard to look at sometimes. I miss my son a lot. He should be here.”
She founded Healing 4 Our Families & Our Nation and is the president of San Francisco Brady California State, working with lawmakers like Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Scott has been a pioneer in violence prevention, gun violence survivorship and activism. Though she has seen some progress over the years, mostly when it came to new and improved resources for victims’ families, she said now she’s finally seeing commonsense gun control coming from the White House.
President Biden recently announced six actions to address the rise in gun violence.
Some of the newly proposed executive orders overlap with what California has already approved, including requiring home-assembled “ghost guns” to have serial numbers, developing a model for “red flag” laws, where firearms can be removed from people, deemed high-risk and increasing funding to gun violence intervention programs.
The other actions include requiring the Justice Department to issue an annual report on firearms trafficking and confirming a permanent Director for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.
Rep. Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, points to how gun violence is also a racial issue. Black Americans are twice as likely as white Americans to die from gun violence and 14 times more likely to get hurt, according to Brady.
“We’re continuing to work together to find a solution that will garner the super-majority that is needed to pass legislation in the Senate,” Bass said.
Republicans argue Democrats are using mass shootings as a way to take away guns from Americans who want to use them to defend themselves. Rep. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said gun control does not lessen crime but actually “makes it worse.” During a hearing last month, Cruz touted his legislation with Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, that targets individuals trying to buy a gun illegally.
“Grassley-Cruz targeted at violent criminals, targeted at fugitives,” Cruz said.
But Democrats want a more comprehensive approach. There were 45 mass shootings last month and at least 147 total so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archives. Scott said this needs to be a wake-up call.
“This is an urgency. This is an epidemic. This is a crisis that has gotten out of control,” Scott said. “We have been dead to this issue and it’s time to be resurrected.”
As the pandemic eases and people leave their homes, Scott hopes for an end to gun violence. She hopes no one else will have to suffer the same pain she has. Her son, George, was a father, and now his son, her grandson, has grown up and become a father himself.
“Very hard, very hard,” Scott said, holding her pictures. “But these are my treasures, I have to keep them, these are my treasures, yes they are.”
Bass noted that her bill, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, also takes front and center on the issue of gun violence. It’s a series of provisions that hold police accountable for using excessive force.
This bill passed the House and sits in the Senate for now.