December 3, 2015
Please attribute the following statement on yesterday’s mass shooting in San Bernardino to Hector Villagra, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California (ACLU SoCal):
ACLU SoCal extends its deepest condolences to the families whose loved ones were killed or wounded in Wednesday’s horrific shooting in San Bernardino. While the motives that led to the tragic events that claimed 14 lives are not yet known, we do know that Americans from diverse communities are in mourning today. Whatever the motives are determined to be, we mustn’t attribute the actions or characteristics of two individuals to an entire community. The mourning in San Bernardino today is an extension of the grief visited almost daily upon communities as a result of the mass shootings that have already claimed hundreds of lives so far this year. Even as San Bernardino was gripped in fear, four people were shot, one fatally, in Savannah, Georgia. We ought not to succumb to fear. Nor should we allow the shootings to divide us or tempt us to place blame on communities of different backgrounds or faiths. Rather, we must unite around the urgent necessity to honestly examine gun violence in this country and explore effective ways of preventing yet another mass shooting.
Contact: Sandra Hernandez at 213 977.5247, shernandez@aclusocal.org Ed Boyer at 213 977 5242, eboyer@aclusocal.org

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