June 01--Wednesday's murder-suicide shooting at UCLA took place on the same day that the Los Angeles City Council was staging a ceremony commemorating National Gun Violence Awareness Day.
One activist who attended the City Hall event said it was the second time in the past year that council members have interrupted a discussion of gun violence to announce that a shooting had just taken place elsewhere in Southern California.
"The first time it was San Bernardino," said Laurie Saffian, co-chair of the nonprofit group Women Against Gun Violence. "For this to be the second time that something like this is announced, it's just really a very sobering thought -- that our country is really suffering from an epidemic of huge proportions."
During Wednesday's meeting, council members voted to seek a study on the sources of guns recovered from crimes in Los Angeles.
"Just today, as the City Council voted on my motion to identify how guns make it onto our streets, we got news of another fatal shooting, this one on UCLA's campus," said Councilman Paul Krekorian, who proposed the study.
"Though we don't know all the details about this particular shooting, we do know that many crimes like this are committed by people with guns they shouldn't have access to, guns sold by a few 'bad apple' gun dealers. I want to determine the source of the guns that make it onto our streets so that we can then take appropriate steps to protect the public," he said.
MORE ON THE UCLA SHOOTING
'It's crazy.' Student survived Isla Vista rampage, and now UCLA violence
How students coped during UCLA lockdown
'Barricade it with a chair,' father texts son at UCLA. Response: 'Already did'
david.zahniser@latimes.com
