Adelita Grijalva Discusses Her Crusade for Greater Gun Safety in Pima County

A record number of homicides in Tucson last year.

Increases from 2009 to 2018 in the amount of gun deaths in Arizona, including Phoenix, Tucson, and Mesa.

Seventy one percent of these gun deaths were caused by suicide.

Eighty seven percent of violent deaths toward Arizona women were caused by gunshot wounds inflicted by an intimate partner.

Guns were the second leading cause of death among Arizona children in this time period.

Among the many efforts to curtail the rise in gun related crime and improve firearm safety are those by Pima County District Five Supervisor Adelita Grijalva.

Supervisor Grijalva graciously took the time to discuss her crusade to reduce gun violence and promote firearm safety.

The questions and her responses are below.

• Please tell the readers at least two reasons you’re working to promote gun safety and Pima County.

“The proliferation of guns in modern U.S. society and the very lax gun regulations we have here in Arizona require that we pay maximum attention to guns. There’s a significant, significant number of accidental shootings in our region. Many of them are fatal or very damaging and greater emphasis on gun safety can reduce this.

I also serve as President on the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board and the access that children have to guns is astounding. The number of incidents with children and guns has increased exponentially over the last few years.

Additionally, there are concerns about mental health and people during this pandemic that have issues. Isolation, increased suicidal thoughts, depression, all make access to guns, dangerous for people that are dealing with that kind of mental illness.”

• Please tell the readers, at least two solutions you were pursuing to help improve gun safety in Pima County?

“Before we entered office, we had a group of people reach out to us about the sales on Pima County Fairgrounds.

We asked our Pima County Attorney for an opinion and what we got back is similar to what the previous County Attorney sent out, which is basically if we do anything to prevent gun sales on our property, that we’re going against state law and could be sued.

So, we wanted to sort of push on that a little bit.

We worked with the Pima County Attorney, Laura Conover and gun show operator that operates the fairgrounds to distribute free gun locks, to improve gun safety signage at the gun shows and Pima County Fairgrounds and to make clear that children under the age of 18 could not and should not own firearms or handle them.

While we prefer not to have any gun sales happen at all on our county property, this one event saw the distribution of 1600 gun locks. I was happy that our office, after reaching out, was able to accomplish, you know, little steps.

I continue to advocate vigorously for requiring background checks for all gun sales, for prohibiting the sale of rapid-fire assault weapons, and that would require state legislation and we continue to work to try to come up with solutions as a community.

I worked with Mayor Romero to sponsor a town hall about guns. This was for Tucson Unified and Sunnyside school districts. Students and administration that talked to us and law enforcement about what guns, what impact guns are having on their kids.

When we were talking to the coordinator of the gun shows that happen at the fairgrounds, I asked why do you not require everyone to be a licensed carrier? The ones that are not licensed are the ones that don’t require background checks. We’d like to make sure that that happens. And he talked about the fact that sometimes people receive guns as part of an inheritance or something like that. And when they want to sell them, we want to give them a safe place to do that.

And I asked,, do you give them guidelines on, you know, how to sell? Because let’s say for example, this was me. I would have no way to go about that process. And so they did actually outline and hand out to people that are, you know, not professional and not licensed gun dealers, what they would recommend in order to ensure that you know who you’re selling your guns to.

So, while it’s not where we want to be, it’s steps towards that.”

• Please explain at least two strategies you employ to secure passage acceptance of your gun safety proposals.

“The most important approach we can take is to recruit, support and work with state legislative candidates and office holders who will take positive steps to enact state laws that will promote gun safety measures. That is the biggest key, because quite honestly, what we have to deal with at the state level makes it really difficult for us at the local level to enact gun safety measures. At the county level, I will continue to work with gun show operators here and my Pima County elected colleagues and promote gun safety, publicly, and the distribution of free gun locks and promote more forums and town halls with our local law enforcement and elected officials to continue efforts to enact regional solutions.”

4) Is there anything that covered in the first three questions that you’d like to readers to know about your gun safety proposals?

“Adults in this country have the right to own firearms, but they are dangerous and too often deadly instruments. We need reasonable and intelligent laws and regulations to keep them where they belong and out of the hands of criminals, the mentally ill, and children. We need more education and emphasis on gun safety to prevent tragic accidents. We’ll do our best to continue towards these efforts.”