Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee Convenes Local Leaders To Stop Gun Violence

After the Trump administration cut more than $150 billion in funding for community violence intervention programs, regional leaders and local law enforcement gathered in Oakland on Friday with gun violence prevention experts.

Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee hosted mayors and public health leaders to discuss data-driven solutions for a safer Bay Area.

“This is the first of many throughout the country, and once again, Oakland is setting the standard. We’re going to be the leaders in the gun violence public strategy with regional partners,” Lee said.

In June of last year, the U.S Surgeon General declared firearm violence a public health crisis and called for evidence-based prevention strategies. The Trump administration has since deleted the webpage hosting that advisory.

“We no longer have a partner in the White House to help communities decrease gun violence,” said Kris Brown, President of Brady, a gun violence prevention nonprofit.

Additionally, 69 of 145 community violence intervention programs that were awarded through the U.S Department of Justice were terminated in April.

As federal funding is cut, Lee, state Sen. Jesse Arreguín, D-Berkeley, and mayors from Vallejo, Berkeley, Richmond, San Leandro, Antioch, and Stockton outlined local efforts to reduce gun violence, including youth programs and to trace guns.

Stockton Mayor Christina Fugazi, a former educator, said she lost three of her former students to gun violence.

“In the schools, they’re bringing guns, and it almost makes you feel helpless,” she said. “But having an opportunity … like this, to be … able to share some of the things in my community that we’ve learned … is something that we all need to be doing.”

“We also need to create opportunities where youth, in particular, do not focus on a weapon as a sign of power or as a sign of safety,” San Leandro Mayor Juan Gonzalez said.

“We need to provide the programs and the services that provide people the opportunity to feel wonderful, to feel like they’re thriving in their communities, and that weapons and violence is not the approach that we should take.”

Officials also discussed the issue of the illegal firearm supply. In Richmond, a city long-regarded for its innovative efforts to treat gun violence as a public health problem, Mayor Eduardo Martinez addressed work by the Richmond Police Department to trace illegal guns.

“Locally, we can deal with the results of violence, but together is the only way we can deal with the source of violence. And the source of violence is the supply,” he said.

Oakland, and Alameda County at large, has long grappled with higher-than-average gun violence rates — a December 2024 report by then-District Attorney Pamela Price concluded that gun violence was the leading cause of death among Alameda’s children and young people under the age of 24.

High school students from Oakland’s Coliseum Prep Academy recently walked out of class demanding an end to gun violence in their city.

Lee said the group will report back on next steps at a later date.