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.
Ayala added that he thinks the federal government needs to do a better job of cracking down on people who purchase guns illegally, and should ban the distribution of automatic assault rifles.
Nelson Perez, a 17-year-old Coliseum College Prep senior, said his little sister is a fifth grader at the elementary school across the street. He always has a plan in case things take a turn for the worse.
“As soon as I hear a gunshot, to run towards my sister’s school,” Perez said, of the worst-case scenario. “I really don’t think this is an environment and mindset we should have. We should have a mindset of achieving our goals.”
Coliseum College Prep administrator Michael Jenkins said he feels the country is still “on ground-zero” in terms of progress toward adequate gun safety laws, but he is proud nonetheless that his students wish “to be the spark plug or the catalyst to actually drum up the action that they want.”
Jenkins also spoke of the gun violence plaguing Oakland and pointed to the fact that many students don’t feel safe stepping outside of their own homes.
“What the students are feeling is real,” Jenkins said. “There is a clear need to curtail gun violence — inside and outside the school.”