The sickness of the Stockton mass shooting cries out for more than gun laws | Opinion
The pain of gun violence seeps into every corner of America. When I left Tennessee, a state where guns are woven into daily life, and moved to California, it felt like seeking refuge. I didn’t want to go to a grocery store anymore and think, “A shooter could come in and kill all of us.”
Here, in a place with some of the nation’s most rigorous gun laws, I hoped that mass shootings would be rare, a distant headline rather than a local tragedy.
Saturday’s mass shooting in an unincorporated community north of Stockton sadly proved me wrong.
Fifteen people became victims of senseless violence last Saturday. Three children, their futures stolen before they began, suffered fatal gun shot wounds as did a 21-year-old with a lifetime ahead.
There are no suspects currently, and the only leads for motive were found on social media, where some suggested the shooters were looking for a couple of rappers.
The chilling reality that no suspect has been identified only deepens the fear gripping the community. How much rage and emptiness does it take for a person to commit such a heinous act on a Thanksgiving weekend?
This shooting puts a weight on all of us.
At the vigil for the victims, state Sen. Jerry McNerney stood before a crowd united in grief, urging them to confront the collective struggle and the urgent need for solutions.
“When events like this happen, we have to ask ourselves, ‘What could I do differently? How can I make a difference?,’” McNerney said.
It’s a question that comes up every time a tragedy like this occurs.
Back in 2023, I sat across from the mother of a victim of the Covenant School shooting in Nashville. A shooter walked onto the Christian school campus and killed three children and three adults.
The grieving mother brought a picture of her daughter and talked about the classes she liked, the friends she made, and the wonderful spirit she had. The mother then began to cry, grieving that she’d never again get to drop off her child at school or hear how her day was.
Amid the sadness was a mother’s fierce resolve that her daughter’s memory would become a catalyst for change. I felt that same call to action echo within me.
But in Stockton, and everywhere else, it will take more than just the families of these loved ones. It will require a rethinking of how guns affect us.
Gun violence is not new to California, nor is it ending anytime soon.
Gang culture may be the backdrop, but make no mistake, the true culprit and relentless engine of this violence is guns.
Gun violence is a tragic thread woven through the fabric of our nation. From Stockton to a San Jose mall, the common denominator in so much hate and heartbreak is guns.
Calling for a complete ban of guns is not realistic in a country that loves to tout them as a symbol of freedom, but there must be a commitment to seek an alternative to our gun culture. A way for young kids to see a path rather than succumbing to violence. When you add a gun to the social isolation experienced by too many people detached from a shared sense of community, you get what happened in Stockton.
California may take pride in its tough gun laws, but the Stockton shooting lays bare a deeper toxicity, one that laws alone cannot change.
This story was originally published December 2, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "The sickness of the Stockton mass shooting cries out for more than gun laws | Opinion."
