Oakland gun violence continues to rise despite new efforts to combat it
"It's not enough to be the gun safety leader when our babies are getting shot."
OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- Kids carrying guns to school, people taking justice into their own hands, mass shootings and violence on the streets are growing in California despite a lot of successful groundbreaking programs.
The city of Oakland just had its 101 homicide in 2022 as of Tuesday.
"The work we've done while nation leading is not enough. It's not enough to be the gun safety leader when our babies are getting shot," said California's Attorney General Rob Bonta. "Over the weekend two teen brothers from Berkeley Jayz and Angel Soleta Garcia shot to death at a birthday party."
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Days before a mass shooting in Oakland at a school site that left six people including two students gravely injured."
At this gathering hosted by prosecutors victims rights advocates, Oakland's mayor told the group teachers have told her students admit to carrying weapons.
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"Many of them said 'yes, I need to carry a gun to school to protect myself.' People's choices about whether or not to abide by laws and to trust government justice or to take justice into their own hands is a choice we are seeing more and more horrifically in front of us," said Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf.
Illegal weapons are being seized. Programs to work with at- risk youth are in play.
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Now California's Attorney General has opened a new Office of Gun Violence Prevention to identify programs that are working and roll them out in more cities.
Bonta offered an example. "San Diego is the city doing a great job with gun violence restraining orders. Others can do the same. Oakland can do the same. Berkeley can do the same," he said.
The goals are prevention and intervention. But there are no easy short-term answers.
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