By Gabe Agcaoili. Bay City News.
For more than a decade, San Joaquin and Alameda counties have had the highest rates of violent gun crime among California's 15 largest counties, according to one study.
The Public Policy Institute of California, in research it released Monday, said nearly 40 percent of violent crimes between 2010 and 2022 in San Joaquin and Alameda counties involved firearms.
The study, based on data from the California Department of Justice's Criminal Justice Statistics Center, revealed that in the same period, 90 percent of all homicides recorded in both counties involved firearms.
In Contra Costa County and San Francisco, about 70 and 60 percent, respectively, of their homicide cases involved firearms. In Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, 50 and 38 percent respectively of similar cases were also committed with firearms, the study found.
According to the study, half of the robberies committed in Alameda County between 2010 and 2022 involved firearms.
The Public Policy Institute of California also noted that in the same period, 40 percent of aggravated assaults recorded in San Joaquin County involved firearms, “which is notably higher than in other large counties.”
The study revealed that twenty-eight percent of aggravated assaults in Alameda County and less than 15 percent of similar cases in San Mateo County also involved firearms.
The study can be found at https://www.ppic.org/blog/gun-incidents-drive-a-climb-in-violent-crime-rates/.
California has the strictest gun laws among U.S. states, and its Legislature proposes and passes multiple bills aimed at addressing the prevalence of firearms. However, violent crime in the state has skyrocketed since 2019, and more than half of recent crimes involve firearms, the Public Policy Institute of California noted.
In June, the governor Gavin Newsom proposed a constitutional amendment to enshrine gun safety measures nationwide. His proposed 28th amendment to the U.S. Constitution includes four gun safety measures that are already part of California law: universal background checks, raising the age to purchase firearms to 21, instituting a wait for the purchase of firearms and prohibit the purchase of assault weapons by civilians.
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