This article first appeared in the Opinion section of The San Diego Union-Tribune on June 10, 2026.

June is Gun Violence Prevention Month, and in the wake of the terrible shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego that left three victims dead, the topic is as relevant as ever.

America is awash in firearms. With a nationwide population of nearly 350 million people, it is estimated that there are over 500 million guns in circulation. That fact presents our society with immense dangers and challenges.

In California, we’ve made great strides in reducing gun violence thanks to common sense gun safety laws and follow through legislation to make sure they are being fully and properly implemented. Law enforcement’s partnership on implementing the law and promoting responsible gun ownership has been paramount.

We were the first state in the nation to adopt a “red flag law” in 2016, and today, we have a broad system with nine types of protection orders that restrict access to firearms for people who are at high risk of committing violence, such as those with domestic violence restraining orders or people put on 72-hour mandatory mental health holds.

The result is California has one of the lowest gun death rates in the nation (7 deaths per 100,000 in population, compared with the 12.8 deaths per 100,000 national average). To illustrate, when we contrast California with Mississippi, where there is no state permit required to purchase a firearm, no waiting period, no firearm registration, no assault weapon ban and silencers are legal, there are 28 deaths per 100,000 people. The bottom line is that responsible gun ownership laws reduce gun violence.

But while we can take some comfort in our progress, that is not good enough. In a modern society, we should be able to go to school, places of worship, work or you name it without worrying about possible gun violence.

The cost of our gun violence problem is high, not only in the death toll, but in the danger, anxiety and stress it creates across society, especially for youth. It is the leading cause of death for children and adolescents. According to a study by the Giffords Law Center, gun violence costs California more than $18 billion a year, with $1.4 billion in direct costs to taxpayers for police responses, emergency medical treatments and criminal justice operations.

Furthermore, access to guns enables suicide — more than half of gun violence deaths are due to suicide.

What more can we do to prevent gun violence in California? What more should we do?

It starts with education and understanding. That’s why I’m teaming up this month with The OpEd Project to launch Voices of Prevention. The idea is simple: to elevate diverse, knowledgeable perspectives on the gun violence ravaging our communities.

We need greater understanding and new ideas. Allowing the status quo to remain is simply unacceptable.

My heart goes out to the victims of the San Diego Islamic Center shooting and their families. Freedom of religion is one of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, and everyone in this country should be able to worship in peace, without fear of violence or discrimination.

Like in so many other recent shootings, the two perpetrators of the Islamic Center shooting were young, isolated men who were radicalized by the internet. They were in need of healthy community, mental health counseling, mentoring, caring and rational guidance.

As The New York Times wrote, “The attack was yet another example of how the combination of alienated young men with access to guns and a hateful online community that welcomes them can lead to a spasm of real-world violence.”

There are so many layers to gun violence in America. And we need to address them all. This month, let’s renew our efforts to identify the root causes of gun violence, share what is working and work to build a society where gun deaths are not an everyday occurrence that threaten our families, communities and basic freedoms.

Blakespear, a Democrat, represents California’s 38th Senate District and previously served three terms as the mayor of Encinitas.

photo credit: Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune

This article first appeared in the Opinion section of The San Diego Union-Tribune on May 22, 2026.

After three people — including a heroic security guard — were killed Monday at the Islamic Center of San Diego, one can only imagine the shock experienced by the families of those directly affected.

The question is what continues to drive these acts of violence despite declining crime rates. Crime is down across the U.S., in some cases reaching its lowest levels in decades. The Council on Criminal Justice said that last year, the nation had its lowest homicide rate since 1900, with the largest one-year percentage drop in homicides.

Yes, the rate of firearm-related deaths in our nation has been rising, reaching a near three-decade high in 2021. But that is due to an increase in gun suicides. The number of firearm-related homicides actually has decreased, going from 20,958 in 2021 to 19,651 in 2022. While mass shooting deaths represent only about 1% of all firearm-related deaths in the U.S., the number of those incidents is increasing.

What motivates the nation’s mass shooters, given the overall decrease in violent crime? Many will point to all the hateful rhetoric that is amplified by social media. Like a sharp stone cast into calm waters, antagonistic posts generate a ripple effect.

Believers in Islam are a particular target. The Center for the Study of Organized Hate recently found that the targeting of Muslims has increased in 2026. The center reports that such behavior spiked on Feb. 28, the day the U.S. went to war with Iran.

A disturbing number of social influencers perpetuate hatred. The San Diego shooters who committed suicide after their attack were 17 and 18. As noted in the UCLA Initiative to Study Hate: “Our results help to highlight the distressing number of young people who may encounter hateful content on social media, sounding a clear alarm.”

City, state and federal budget shortfalls have resulted in the slashing of programs aimed at helping at-risk individuals and preventing them from being radicalized. Dwindling mental health funding presumably contributes to the violence playing out before innocent communities.

Gun laws have fallen victim to divisive partisanship. Even universal background checks on gun buyers are a partisan issue. At least one of the mosque shooters had access to a parent’s gun arsenal. How can one logically dispute safe storage requirements? These debates reflect a much broader failure to confront gun violence.

Finally, most of us have not (yet) been directly impacted by incidents like Monday’s horrific tragedy. We are understandably busy living our daily lives. But we can all do something before becoming a statistic. If we do nothing, we should consider who to hold accountable when gun violence affects our communities.

Slomanson is a distinguished professor emeritus at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego and a member of the Alliance to End Gun Violence, formerly known as San Diegans for Gun Violence Prevention.

photo credit: K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune