Santa Clara County, Gilroy shooting victim's family push for changes to gun laws

ByJobina Fortson KGO logo
Tuesday, August 13, 2019
Santa Clara County, Gilroy shooting victim's family push for changes to gun laws
After the deadly mass shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival, the flags at the Santa Clara County Government Center were lowered to honor the victims. Now the county has raised them back up as a symbol of reclaiming the community's strength.

SAN JOSE (KGO) -- Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez told ABC7 News raising the flags outside of the government building was about reclaiming the community's strength.

The flags were lowered to honor the victim's of the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting.

Tuesday morning, county supervisors raised the flags as the family of 13-year-old Keyla Salazar tearfully watched along. Salazar was killed in the shooting.

RELATED: Funeral service held for 13-year-old Gilroy Garlic Festival Shooting victim, Keyla Salazar

"Whether or not I get all the money on the world or the things in the world, the person I lost will never be back with us," Katiuska Pimentel, Salazar's aunt, said.

Supervisor Chavez said a recommendation for the county supervisors to support a resolution to ban assault weapons would be made on Tuesday. The plan is for the recommendation to be sent to the federal government in an effort to share their concerns and desire to take action.

"Really it puts the emphasis on us nationally across the country," Chavez said. "Being able to say, 'you all deal with it at the federal level or you're forcing us to do it at the local level.' What's significant about that is that we get a lot of push back even from the state and federal government when we try to do our own regulations. I think the federal government has really given us no choice."

See more stories on the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting.