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Shock. Anger. Outrage. Despair.
These words barely scratch the surface of the range of emotions the people of Half Moon Bay, and no doubt millions of others, are experiencing in the wake of the Jan. 23 shooting spree that left seven farmworkers dead and one severely injured.
Half Moon Bay may be best known as a restful weekend getaway spot filled with idyllic beaches, but too few people know about its vibrant agricultural economy, fueled by more than 100 farms and as many as 3,000 farmworkers. Farmworkers who labor out of the sight of most of us, earning about $20,000 a year. Farmworkers who helped keep grocery stores stocked during the height of the pandemic.
Farmworkers who exploded onto our front pages and our airwaves when one of them went on a tear with a semi-automatic weapon, shattering lives and puncturing the hope of so many of us that these types of tragedies only happen “somewhere else.”
Half Moon Bay is a close-knit community, one that is resilient, one where in the wake of the shooting, people turned out to bring food, clothing and blankets to the I.D.E.S. Portuguese Hall in town because they wanted to do something, anything, to help the people who survived, witnessed, or who were deeply affected by the shooting.
This has to stop.
California is ranked first in the nation when it comes to gun safety, but that means absolutely nothing to the families of the seven dead farmworkers because it certainly wasn’t safe for them. The United States has a gun homicide rate 23 times higher than countries similar to ours. We are a global outlier and because guns can so easily be brought in from out of state, little will change until Congress is willing to stand up to the gun lobby and say enough is enough.
When I say Congress, I am not talking about our local delegation, which has been supportive of sensible gun legislation for years, led by former Congresswoman Jackie Speier who herself was shot five times on a Guyana airstrip in 1978.
No, I’m talking specifically about the Republicans in Congress, the vast majority of whom have no problem telling a woman what she can and can’t do with her body when it comes to pregnancy and birth control, but won’t support truly meaningful restrictions on who can and can’t own a gun or on assault weapons.
I’ve helped lead some real action in California, like closing the “gun show loophole” and working on red flag laws, but none of that is going to undo what happened in Half Moon Bay. The accused killer is charged with buying a semi-automatic handgun in California legally, then using it to kill seven people at two Half Moon Bay farms to resolve a “workplace dispute.”
Millions of people around the globe suffer from mental illness and we are not the only country where workplace disputes exist. We are, however, the only country where workplace disputes turn into shooting galleries, which is in part because powerful guns are still too easy to get and because people who shouldn’t have these weapons are allowed to own them.
There is a line from the Mishnah, the first text of the Jewish oral law, that reads, “You’re not obligated to complete the work but neither are you free to desist from it.” The victims of Half Moon Bay will not be abandoned and we will not desist from our work to prevent similar tragedies in the future.
Josh Becker is a California state senator representing District 13, which includes the Midpeninsula.
Josh Becker is a California state senator representing District 13, which includes the Midpeninsula.
Josh Becker is a California state senator representing District 13, which includes the Midpeninsula.
Redwood City attorney sues ‘First Amendment auditors’ after Menlo Park disputeApril 2, 2026 11:31 am
Regardless of such mass slaughters via body-part-destroying rifles, etcetera, hard-right-wing radio-talk-show host Lars Larson defends the gun industry.
Perhaps worse, he (or his superiors, if he has any) even continues broadcasting ads in his voice — thus likely making him even more money — selling, besides guns and ammunition themselves, the services of a business that assists people in accessing gun ownership that has been denied them by government regulations.
… And this from a public personality who has the morally-challenged audacity to openly call himself Christian!