Kevin Kiley bemoans gun politics while shooting threat grows in his Placer County district
On Tuesday evening, at the same time Assemblyman Kevin Kiley was downplaying gun violence in a debate hosted by KCRA 3 and CapRadio, a student at Granite Bay High School, Kiley’s own alma mater, allegedly told another student that they were going to “shoot up the school.”
Meanwhile, the three candidates running to represent California’s 3rd Congressional District were asked at the debate about the recent mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two teachers dead. Kiley, Sacramento Sheriff Scott Jones and Navy veteran and physician Dr. Kermit Jones were asked: “Why do you believe it is only in the United States these mass shootings happen so frequently?”
Kiley did not mention guns once in his answer. Instead, he took a page out of the GOP playbook — he briefly offered his “heart and prayers” to the victims and community of Uvalde while demonizing “cynical politicians trying to make this a political issue.”
Yes, Kiley apparently believes that seeking legislative solutions to halt mass shootings is more troubling than the mass murder of 10- and 11-year-olds.
It was a disturbing but unsurprising response from the Trump-endorsed Republican assemblyman, who represents Placer County’s suburbs. In light of a barrage of mass shootings in Buffalo, Uvalde and other communities over the past month, Kiley has instead used his platform to decry school mask mandates and bash his Democratic colleagues.
Kiley is willfully overlooking the threat of gun violence and mass murder in his own district.
On the same day the Granite Bay student was arrested for threatening a mass shooting, Roseville law enforcement announced that they had arrested a Westpark High School student in possession of a list of names of other students, suggesting the potential for harm. Roseville police said the student had previously brought a gun to school.
In December, a 16-year-old was arrested in Lincoln after threatening a school shooting in an Instagram post. And in 2018, two years after I graduated from the same high school as Kiley, a former Granite Bay student was arrested after he reportedly threatened to kill a teen attending Roseville’s Adelante High School. Police found Trevor Marshall with a loaded .223-caliber weapon in a Chipotle parking lot on Douglas Boulevard.
Just a few doors down from that same Chipotle, at Roseville’s House of Oliver, waitress Vita Joga was shot and killed in broad daylight last June by her ex-fiance, who blatantly violated a restraining order filed by the single mother.
Last month, Placer County Undersheriff Wayne Woo told The Bee Editorial Board that while the county’s crime rates have not increased like they have in other parts of California, Placer is “seeing a dramatic increase” in the number of illegal guns being seized by law enforcement.
The same thing is happening in Sacramento County. Kiley’s Republican challenger Scott Jones, a champion for the Second Amendment, has approved thousands of concealed carry permits as Sacramento sheriff, far more than his predecessors and many other law enforcement leaders around the state — undoubtedly fueling the proliferation of guns and gun violence in our community.
The folly of Placer County is pretending that we exist in a crime-free bubble. A robust gun culture pervades the 3rd Congressional District, and study after study has shown that easy access to firearms is a primary driver of gun violence. Politicians like Kiley would rather pander to a minority of conservative constituents who treasure their Second Amendment rights above all else than reduce gun violence or even acknowledge that a troubling pattern of school shooting threats has emerged under their watch.
I was a freshman at Granite Bay High when the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred and 20 babies — only 6 and 7 years old — were murdered. I vividly remember thinking, “This could happen here.” It’s not enough to pray that it doesn’t.