SACRAMENTO, Calif. — State and national lawmakers joined community leaders from across California Friday to call for solutions as June marks National Gun Violence Awareness Month.
"I'm ready to make peace fashionable so we can fight against this epidemic that's killing our kids," said Rudy Corpuz Jr, a gun violence prevention advocate. "We gotta figure this thing out, and we if we can't put our minds together to wrap around it for us to figure it out then something is wrong with our society."
The call to action comes as Sacramento was hit with at least four fatal shootings in just one week.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg says city leaders are listening and taking action, like approving the city budget with $3.2 million for the Office of Violence Prevention.
"We need multiple strategies to reduce gun violence in our country and in our community,” said Steinberg. "We're taking every step that we can to put more money into reducing violence, into early intervention for young people, into more summer programming for youth and working with law enforcement to get more guns off the streets."
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urges folks to call their representatives and demand action for the changes they want to see.
"I have two school age children and the thought that they have to consider going to school and being gunned down is horrific," said Todd Henry, Deputy Chief of the Davis Police Department. "Law enforcement itself — we are not the solution to this. We are part of the solution. To be able to effectively address this issue it requires an entire community."