Harris travels to California after 3 mass shootings

The announcement comes a day after seven people were killed in two related shootings in Half Moon Bay, and three days after a dance hall shooting in Monterey Park, east of Los Angeles, that left 11 dead. Another shooting in Oakland on Monday killed one person and wounded seven others.

“We’ve lost more than lives in mass shootings after mass shootings,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said during her briefing on Tuesday. “The flags at the White House were already at half-mast in honor of those murdered in Monterey Park when we learned of the Half Moon Bay shooting.”

“President Biden, like most Americans, believes this is an urgent issue; that too many of our neighbors, colleagues and children lose their lives to gun violence,” added Jean-Pierre. “Over the past two decades, more school-age children have died from guns than duty police officers and active-duty military combined.”

According to the Gun Violence Archive, the US has seen 39 mass shootings across the country so far this year. The deadly episodes led to renewed calls for gun control laws from state and federal officials, including Newsom, who likened the Second Amendment to “a suicide pact‘ during an interview with CBS. On Monday, Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced legislation with Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), which would ban offensive weapons.

Harris recently returned from a trip to California that included a stop in San Francisco following the series of winter storms that killed 22 people across the state.

Olivia Olander contributed to this report