Officials, activists renew call for legislation targeting US gun violence after Sacramento mass shooting

The shooting that killed six people and injured 12 in downtown Sacramento, California on Sunday has prompted California officials, city leaders and activists to renew calls for new legislation to target gun violence.

The shooting began in the early hours of Sunday morning in an area packed with bars and restaurants, and left three women and three men, all adults, dead.

Sacramento’s police chief said that there were multiple gunmen behind the mass shooting.

Hours after the incident, City Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela said putting more police officers in the streets will not necessarily stop the violence.

Valenzuela said the state and federal government need to “step up on guns,” adding, “It didn’t need to happen at all if we had the right laws in place.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom called the shooting “yet another horrendous act of gun violence,” saying this crisis needs to be solved.

“The scourge of gun violence continues to be a crisis in our country, and we must resolve to bring an end to this carnage,” Newsom said in a statement.

Six dead, ten injured, in early morning shooting in downtown Sacramento

Six people were killed and ten injured in a shooting in downtown Sacramento, California, that took place in a busy nightlife district early Sunday morning, police said.

Meanwhile, Democratic state Sen. Bob Hertzberg said he was angry as there is more that can be done to curb gun violence.

“Angry that there is more we can do to stop gun violence like this from happening in the first place,” Hertzberg said. “Just blocks from the Capitol, this mass shooting will be a reminder of action needed to save lives. The Legislature will act.”

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg also called the shooting “a senseless and unacceptable tragedy,” and described gun violence as a “sickness in the country.”

“It is a sickness in our country. It is a sickness in our culture. And until we confront it and begin making those reasonable distinctions, to respect responsible gun ownership and get rid of these weapons of mass destruction and commit ourselves to doing that, how can we say that something like this would never happen again?”

Meanwhile, Moms Demand Action, a California group that advocates for stronger gun laws, said in a statement that it is “sick and tired of waking up to news of the latest senseless act of gun violence.”

The group noted that it will continue pushing for changes to gun laws.

The latest violence occurred just hours after another mass shooting took place in Texas. At least 12 people were shot, one fatally, at a concert in Dallas early Sunday.

"A preliminary investigation determined that at the event, one individual fired a gun into the air, then another unknown individual fired a gun in the crowd's direction," the Dallas Police Department said in a statement.

Across the US, 120 people have been killed in mass shooting so far this year, according to the Moms Demand Action’s data.

According to the group, gun violence has claimed 10,815 lives so far this year, which include homicides, suicides and unintentional shootings.

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