Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti Thursday demanded “smart legislation” to cut down on gun violence in the wake of the UCLA murder-suicide on campus, warning that residents have “become immune” to such tragedies.
“When guns are so easy to get, when that violence continues to play out on our streets, we have to speak up and speak out — have smart legislation to try to prevent that where we can,” he said.
At a City Hall news conference for the signing of the city’s budget, Garcetti told reporters that the deadly shooting at UCLA should serve as a reminder that gun violence is a problem that can occur anywhere.
“It’s a reminder that gun violence does not discriminate. You can have a Ph.D. or you can be a little kid, you could be black or white, brown or Asian,” Garcetti said. “You can be a man or woman, young or old. And gun violence has just become too acceptable. We’ve become immune to it and, you know, a couple days later people say it’s just a murder-suicide. Well, there’s no such thing as just a murder, just a suicide.
He called the UCLA campus “a place of refuge and learning,” and noted that the chaos and fear that erupted on the campus Wednesday often occurs “on our streets in certain neighborhoods each night.”
Garcetti hailed the response of the various law enforcement agencies to the shooting, and the reaction of students.
“I want to say to the Bruins, it was a heroic response people had,” the mayor said. “Students did exactly what they were told to do. … They were heroic at a very, very tragic moment.”
—City News Service