I grew up in Gilroy, a place where every softball game, dance practice, first day of school, and Garlic Festival was imbued with a deep sense of community. I've volunteered at every Gilroy Garlic Festival since I was young, helping in everything from picking up trash to cooking garlic bread to finally serving as Miss Gilroy Garlic Festival Queen. The day I was crowned, my 18th birthday, I joined a group of amazing young women who’d dedicated their lives to advocating for Gilroy across the United States and abroad as ambassadors to Portugal and Japan. I never thought I would have to advocate to protect my community from gun violence.
Young people are disproportionately impacted by gun violence and the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting is sadly only the most recent in a series of examples that demonstrate this. This should never have happened. Our country needs comprehensive federal legislation on guns, starting with a ban on military assault rifles.
Those who lost their lives—six-year-old Stephen Romero, 13-year-old Keyla Salazar, and 25-year-old Trevor Irby—now join the staggeringly long list of young people killed by gun violence. According to the Gun Violence Archive, in 2019 alone there have been 248 mass shootings where over 8,000 people have been killed. These victims are now a part of the horrific statistic that people under the age of 35 are affected by gun violence more than any other generation. According to a report from Generation Progress, young people are more likely to die from gun violence than from a car accident. Young African Americans and Hispanics also face higher rates of gun violence than their white peers, by 18 and 4 times, respectively.
Moreover, the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting is just one more example why no civilian should have access to a military assault rifle. The shooter legally purchased an AK-47 military assault rifle while living in Nevada and then used it to carry out a mass shooting in California. He was 19; old enough to purchase a military-style weapon, but still not old enough to buy alcohol. Thankfully the Gilroy police apprehended the shooter, but not before he managed to fire 16 shots into the crowd. Just this weekend, only a week after the Garlic Festival shooting, an active shooter used an assault weapon in El Paso, Texas killing multiple people at a shopping center. According to Everytown, assault weapons and high-capacity magazines greatly increase the lethality of a mass shooting. Even though a good guy with a gun stopped a bad guy with a gun, it only took 16 bullets to kill three people and send several to the emergency room.
I’m an organizer at a progressive advocacy organization that works directly with young people impacted by gun violence. Usually, I would tell members of my community to call their members of Congress in times like this, but our congressional representative, Zoe Lofgren, is already committed to addressing gun violence in our district. Kamala Harris, our U.S. Senator, has also been an outspoken advocate for gun violence prevention legislation. We can’t afford to rely on one or two representatives to tackle the overwhelming, country-consuming issue of gun violence. We need the entirety of Congress to pass comprehensive legislation to stop this public health epidemic. And for that to happen, we need you to vote for change.
The Gilroy shooting exposes the need for federal legislation and leaders who will dedicate their service to protect every single district and state from gun violence. California’s policy has a state ban on assault rifles and received a grade “A” from the Giffords Law Center but still could not protect its citizens from neighboring state’s laws like Nevada.
To the young survivors of the Gilroy shooting and every tragedy caused by gun violence, I’d like to offer the resources of the Fight4AFuture network. The Fight4AFuture network is a community of hundreds of young people who have been affected by gun violence. Together we train young activists to be leaders, advocate our legislators, uplift our stories, and finally, provide a space for healing.
Unfortunately, the community of Gilroy is not alone. We have joined the gun violence generation. Stephen Romero and Keyla Salazar were not even old enough to vote for representatives who have the power to save their lives. It’s time for all of us to vote for change, to vote for a Congress courageous enough to ban assault rifles—if not for my community, for yours. Don’t wait to learn from experience that it is only a matter of time until your house of worship, neighborhood, movie theater, shopping mall, or festival is next.