Vanguard News Editor
OAKLAND, CA – A comprehensive report on the gun violence epidemic and public health emergency in Alameda County, entitled “Tackling Gun Violence Epidemic in Alameda County: A Public Health Emergency,” was released Wednesday by Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price.
“Between 2019 to 2023, an average of three residents were killed by firearms each week in Alameda County and behind every statistic is a shattered family and community,” said Price, adding, “Under my administration, the DA’s office has taken bold steps to combat gun violence while promoting equity and healing for survivors.”
The 84-page report covers 2019-23 is an “unprecedented collaboration between public safety and public health partners and provides data and recommendations to guide the County’s continued work to reduce violence while advancing justice reform,” according to DA Price’s statement.
Price said the report “highlights strategies for keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people. Last month, the DA’s Office secured a $5.5 million grant from the California Judicial Council to help improve compliance and case management for gun cases and gun relinquishment orders—the removal of guns from people prohibited from possessing a firearm—with law enforcement and court partners.”
“We launched an innovative Gun Violence Restraining Order Outreach Project to educate communities about the availability of tools to remove guns and ammunition from people who are a danger to themselves and others,” explained Price.
The soon-to-be gone DA added the report addresses “the intersectionality of domestic violence and gun violence,” and the DA office “convened gun violence roundtable conversations with our law enforcement partners and collaborated with the Alameda County Public Health Department (and) supported Oakland’s CEASEFIRE program (and) implemented a pilot Mentor Gun Diversion Program…offering non-violent youth in possession of a gun pathways to interrupt the potential for escalating harm.”
Price noted the report covers, in two parts, the “Public Health Impact of Violence and the Contribution of Structural Inequalities,” and the “Public Safety Impact of Gun Violence and the Regulation of Firearms.”
Each section, Price said, “documents trends in rising gun violence in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with special attention to the rise in gun-related deaths of women and children in our County (and) advises innovative approaches for the County to attack gun violence and build safe communities.”
