Oxnard takes aim at gun violence with latest resolution: ‘Tired of the senseless killing’
Oxnard will send a resolution adopted this week to federal and state elected officials demanding greater gun control legislation.
The City Council unanimously passed the resolution Tuesday, denouncing gun violence and supporting efforts to curb further casualties.
“I think it’s important to say as a community, as a society, as a government entity, that we’re tired of the senseless killing,” said Mayor Pro Tem Bryan A. MacDonald Tuesday. “We’re tired of the bloodshed. We’re tired of our failures.”
The resolution makes six declarations aimed at reducing gun violence:
It denounces gun violence and encourages the city’s state and federal delegation to pass laws targeting the possession, manufacturing and distribution of illegal firearms.
It asks the city’s delegation to fund mental health awareness and assistance programs.
It supports laws requiring background checks, maintaining “gun-free” zones in schools and preventing the illegal possession of firearms.
It endorses red-flag laws allowing family and police to seek a court order to temporarily take guns away from a potentially dangerous person.
It backs the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which provided $750 million in federal funding for mental health and gun and school safety.
It demands state and federal elected officials “take immediate action to enact meaningful gun control legislation to help prevent even one more child from being harmed by gunfire.”
Mayor John C. Zaragoza, who said Tuesday he supports the Second Amendment, requested the resolution come before the City Council at their June 7 meeting. He said his family has lost loved ones to gun violence and understands the grief it causes.
“They say time heals everything, but we still continue to heal,” Zaragoza said.
The resolution comes two weeks after the council declared the city a right-to-choose sanctuary city for abortion. For more than five hours, dozens of residents expressed support and opposition to the resolution.
On Wednesday, only four people addressed the gun control resolution Wednesday, three of which were in favor.
For Barbara Macri-Ortiz, of Oxnard, the resolution wasn’t strict enough. She said the nation needs to remove assault rifles from the streets to help end mass shootings.
“Until we do this, we’re just going to see these mass shootings every weekend,” Macri-Ortiz said. “It’s just horrible.”
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According to the resolution, eight people have died and 75 have suffered injuries due to gun violence in Oxnard since January 2021. The Oxnard Police Department has seized over 350 firearms and arrested over 300 people for illegally possessing a firearm in the same timeframe.
Port Hueneme resident Deborah Baber showed the council poster boards with guns and people to illustrate that guns, by themselves, don't kill. She said they require someone to pull the trigger to end a life.
“I invite everyone to honor our Second Amendment and bear the weapons that we are allowed to bear as law abiding men and women that inhabit this great country,” Baber said.
Brian J. Varela covers Oxnard, Port Hueneme and Camarillo. He can be reached at brian.varela@vcstar.com or 805-477-8014. You can also find him on Twitter @BrianVarela805.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Oxnard demands gun control legislation as firearms violence mounts
