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May 26th, 2021 is now a day that will live in infamy in Silicon Valley. At around 6:30am this morning, we learned that a mass shooting had taken place at VTA’s Guadalupe light rail maintenance shops on 1st and Younger in San Jose. (That’s by the County Sheriff’s Office, and 1 block north of the Santa Clara County Building and County Jail.)
As of 3pm, nine (9) people are dead, including the shooter. The shootings took place during when the light rail employees were having a morning meeting.
VTA shut down light rail as of noon, for the rest of today. Shuttle buses are running instead of light rail throughout the system today. This will allow law enforcement to properly investigate the Guadalupe light rail (LRT) shops, as the facility remains an active crime investigation scene at this time.
Watch your favorite news outlet for the latest information. We’ll try to keep things updated here, as information and circumstances warrant.
More on this – and how YOU can help provide relief for the victims and their families – are below.
Table of Contents
- Help In Reuniting VTA Employees With Their Families
- Statement From Our Group
- How YOU Can Help Shooting Victims and Their Families
- Conclusion
Help In Reuniting VTA Employees With Their Families
Some resources to help VTA employees reunite with their families:
Note that these services are only for VTA employees and their families.
Statement From Our Group
Guns are not the answer to problems; yet again, the living are left to put the pieces of their hearts back together.
-Judy Purrington on our email list
Have we learned nothing from these shootings in our republic? One would think we learned how bad gun violence is after shootings and deaths ruined the 2019 Gilroy Garlic Festival. Yet, here we are once again. Sadly, we continue to learn NOTHING.
I have personally contacted John Courtney, President and Business Agent at Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 265, to offer my condolences and group’s help. I had spoken to Mr. Courtney yesterday about working more together, to ensure VTA does more of the right things for all. Among which: restoring public transit service back to what it was before the COVID pandemic started.
Now, we have to work with ATU Local 265 and others to ensure those at VTA affected by the shooting get whatever help they need. It continues to puzzle me as to why people need a gun to help solve their problems.
- Does having a gun give them a sense of superiority over others in their lives?
- Does having a gun grant them magical, otherworldly powers to help them solve whatever problem they have?
- Does having a gun give them “peace of mind” in feeling more secure than other people?
The “thoughts and prayers” often stated after these events are likely not what the victims – and their families – need right now. They need our support – especially from YOU. They need ACTION. NOW. Details on how to do that are in the next section.
How YOU Can Help Shooting Victims and Their Families
Our friends at Working Partnerships USA is collecting funds to distribute to victims of the shooting, and their families. Donate what money you can here.
Write to your member of Congress and urge them to pass stricter gun control laws. Get your friends and family elsewhere in this country to do that.
Conclusion
More than ever before, let’s learn to get along. Let’s help each other up. Let’s work together to make this world better – and safer – for everyone.
That’s something you don’t need a gun for.
Eugene Bradley
Founder & CEO, Silicon Valley Transit Users
P.S. Check to see if your workplace offers “Insider Threat” training. If not, ask your manager or Human Resources department to help you get it. Here’s one example of insider threat training. Such training may help employees identify and, if needed, help potential trouble spots before trouble happens.
Group members Roland Lebrun, Margaret Okuzumi, and Judy Purrington contributed to this report.