California Gov. Gavin Newsom called for more gun control Wednesday, hours after a gunman fatally shot nine people at a San Jose rail yard.
After canceling a planned vaccine-related announcement in Los Angeles, Newsom traveled to San Jose Wednesday afternoon to meet with law enforcement officials. At a press conference, he said it's past time Americans do more to combat gun violence.
"What the hell is going on in the United States of America?" he asked. "When are we going to come to grips with this? When are we going to put down our arms — literally and figuratively — our politics, stale rhetoric, finger pointing, all the hand wringing, consternation that produces nothing except more fury and frustration ... over and over and over again."
Local officials at the same news conference said they did not yet have answers about motive or what type of firearm the shooter used. The gunman is believed to have killed nine people, including himself, and wounded several others. At least one victim was in critical condition Wednesday afternoon, Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office spokesman Russell Davis said.
Newsom, who has long championed tougher gun control policies, has used similar rhetoric in the wake of other shootings. In 2019 after a mass shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival, he blamed then-President Donald Trump and national Republicans for not taking action.
Now, Newsom has a Democratic ally in the White House, but President Joe Biden hasn't been able to persuade Congress to pass the kind of sweeping gun control he advocated on the campaign trail.
This time, Newsom didn't call on any specific politicians or officials to take action. He also didn't endorse any specific gun control policies. Instead, he made a more general plea for the country to take gun violence seriously.
"Wake up to this reality and take a little damn responsibility, all of us," he said. "Move beyond the platitudes and usual rhetoric that tends to mark not just these moments, but the aftermath of these moments, as all of you go away and this fades from view, and then we rinse and repeat someplace else in this country."
In response to Newsom's comments, Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, said he would "welcome" the governor to publicly support Assembly Bill 1223, a measure Levine authored that would tax guns and ammunition purchases to fund gun violence prevention.
"It's time for leaders to show leadership," Levine wrote on Twitter.
