Six months ago, many in the San Gabriel Valley community were celebrating the Lunar New Year, a holiday meant to embrace joy and new beginnings.
On January 21, a gunman walked into Star Dance Studio in Monterey Park and opened fire with a semi-assault weapon, leaving 11 innocent people dead and injuring nine. The community is still grappling with the heartbreak of that attack.
To mark the six-month anniversary of the mass shooting, Democratic Rep. Judy Chu – whose district includes Monterey Park – was joined by the family of a victim, survivors, city council members, law enforcement, and community advocates to introduce two bills she introduces in Congress to address the issues that arose from the tragedy.
“As we continue attending to the needs of victims, families, and community through this healing process, I strongly believe any tragedy demands that we critically think about our future public health responses,” said Chu, during a press conference in front of the studio on Friday, July 21.
In the Monterey Park shooting, Chu said the gunman exhibited anger and paranoia when he walked into a police station two weeks before the attack, accusing the family of poisoning him while stockpiling guns and ammunition. Huu Can Tran, 72, of Hemet, killed himself after a standoff with police hours after the shooting.
“Unfortunately, none of the individuals in this shooter’s life knew that red-flag law could have allowed them to notify the authorities and have his guns taken away,” she said. “These laws expanded by last year’s Bipartisan Safer Communities Act can work if utilized, but many don’t know about them, particularly our immigrant neighbors, many of whom have linguistic and cultural barriers.”
A red-flag law is an order from a judge that suspends a person’s license to possess or carry a gun. They have been used at least 5,000 times in the United States, and in California have prevented 58 mass shootings, according to Chu.
“That is why today I am introducing legislation to require outreach to communities on red flag laws and other life-saving gun safety measures that will be done in (different) languages and in a culturally competent way so that we can all help in preventing future gun violence deaths,” she said.
The Language Access to Gun Violence Prevention Strategies Act would remove linguistic barriers to participation in community gun violence prevention by requiring the Department of Justice and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct public awareness campaigns in the 10 most prominent languages which include Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese and Korean, among others.
Second, the Fair Legal Access Grants Act – or FLAG Act – would provide $50 million in grants for state and local governments to distribute to community organizations that can assist community members in navigating the complicated legal system when seeking to temporarily disarm someone showing signs of violence.
Two months after the shooting, President Joe Biden visited Monterey Park to talk with families of the victims and survivors and also announced an executive order that seeks to increase background checks to buy guns, encourage safe storage of firearms, address the loss and theft of guns during shipping, and increase outreach for red flag laws, among other things.
The difference between the executive order and the two bills Chu introduced is outlining specifics of how to increase outreach – by providing information in different languages and awarding grants to community organizations that can also help those in need of guidance through the legislative process.
“Collectively, this legislative package will strengthen and expand access to red flag laws that have proven effective at decreasing gun deaths and specifically preventing mass shootings,” Chu said, which both legislations already have the support of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York.
Community advocate groups such as Chinatown Service Center, Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California, AAPI Equity Alliance and March for Our Lives showed their support for the bills.
Kristenne Reidy, daughter of the victim Valentino Marcos Alvero, shared how significant it is to provide red-flag law information in different languages.
“Informational pamphlets in a language other than English could empower more communities to care for themselves,” said Reidy, “and to take matters into their own hands when it becomes obvious that their loved ones are no longer responsible, no longer reasonable enough to own and use a gun.”
Reidy said that she received her father’s coroner report on the Fourth of July, and she found out how many bullets took his life.
“Just one, it just takes one bullet to end a person’s life,” she said. “Putting the information people need in their own language so that they can actually understand the resources available to them is so important.”
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna also spoke in support of the bills, calling the tragedy in Monterey Park the “deadliest mass shooting in L.A. County history.”
“I believe it is all of our responsibility to prevent these from happening and that’s what this legislation does,” Luna said. “It really puts more power in the people of our community for when you see something, say something.”
Red-flag laws can also help with other acts of gun violence, Luna said, such as preventing suicides, single homicide or a multiple-victim shooting.
Congresswoman Rep. and go into effect, the San Gabriel Valley community and the country will have to wait and see.
“It is hard to know exactly when that will occur, I say that because it’s a Republican-controlled House,” Chu said in an interview. “But on the other hand, if there was any bill that would be acceptable it would be this one.”
Source: Orange County Register
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