• Santa Barbara County gun owners have the opportunity on Aug. 21 to participate in an anonymous gun buyback program at the Earl Warren Showgrounds, where firearms can be exchanged for $100 Smart & Final gift cards. On July 30, elected officials gathered at Santa Barbara City Hall to encourage locals to participate in the sixth annual event, hosted by the Coalition Against Gun Violence. According to a coalition statement, the five previous anonymous gun buyback events have resulted in 1,200 weapons being turned in. “Santa Barbara Mayor Cathy Murillo and Police Chief Barney Melekian cited a January 2021 murder in Santa Barbara as a disheartening example illustrating the importance of removing guns from circulation,” according to the coalition. “Murrillo pointed out that exchanging a gun on Aug. 21 could save the life of a depressed member of a household or prevent an accidental shooting.” First District Supervisor Das Williams also expressed his support for the event on July 30, noting that “a gun in a household is 22 times more likely to be used on someone living in the home than in defending the home, and if a family decides a gun doesn’t belong in their home, it needs to be disposed of properly,” according to a statement from the coalition. “These guns often find their way, through burglaries or other methods, to the street,” Williams said on July 30. “Guns that are used in the commission of a crime often start out as legal guns.” District Attorney Joyce Dudley, State Sen. Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara), and Erica Reyes from the office of U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) also spoke on July 30 in support of reducing the amount of guns in circulation. “Carbajal supports tighter gun restrictions and background checks at the federal level,” Reyes said, according to the statement.
• U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) announced July 29 that nearly 1,400 California venues have received more than $1 billion from the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) Program. In June, Padilla joined a bipartisan group of senators in urging the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) to disburse Shuttered Venue Operator Grant funding to struggling live entertainment venues as soon as possible, according to Padilla’s office. “The SBA has gone from awarding just over 100 SVOG grants on June 10, to now more than 10,000 nationwide,” according to the senator’s office. Sixteen of the awarded venues are in Santa Barbara County. “Many of the world’s best musicians, actors, and performers got their start in small California venues,” Padilla said in the statement. “The small venues—from theaters, to clubs, to stages—that are embedded deep in the cultural history of our local communities deserve our support. I was proud to vote for the American Rescue Plan, which provides much needed aid to the small businesses operating local venues. We can’t have a recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic that ignores our cultural institutions.” Among the local venues that received aid are the Santa Barbara Center for the Performing Arts and the Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation. Congress created SVOG in the bipartisan Economic Aid Act passed in December 2020, which also appropriated $15 billion to the program, according to Padilla’s office. Another $1.25 billion in funding for the program was included in the American Rescue Plan that Padilla voted for and Biden signed into law in March.
This article appears in Aug 5-12, 2021.
