Late on the eve of Lunar New Year in Monterey Park, California, 72-year-old Huu Can Tran shot and killed 11 people and injured 9 others at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio. Just two days later, on the afternoon of January 23, 66-year-old Chunli Zhao shot and killed 7 people and wounded 1 other person at two farms in Half Moon Bay, California. Though they occurred nearly 400 miles from each other, the shootings were strangely similar: both were committed by older Asian men and both men used semi-automatic pistols. Tran, the Monterey Park shooter, shot and killed himself the day after committing mass murder. Zhao was apprehended alive and has been charged with seven counts of murder.
Both Tran and Zhao were immigrants. Tran has been described by different sources as having moved to the United States from China or Vietnam, while Zhao came to the U.S. from China at least a decade ago. Tran was a former trucker and a regular at the Star Ballroom, where he used to give informal lessons to other patrons. Zhao was a farm worker who lived and worked at one of the farms at which the mass shooting he committed took place. In both shootings, the victims were predominantly Asian. The Asian communities in California and across the United States mourn the dead while demanding that something be done about gun violence.
For three years, the Stop Asian Hate movement has drawn attention to the violence Asian Americans have faced. While these shootings were committed by Asian perpetrators, they are nonetheless part of a pattern of gun violence to which the United States seems uniquely prone. Stop Asian Hate, which as a movement began after a 2021 mass shooting with predominantly Asian victims, has always overlapped with movements seeking to address gun violence. But what could have been done to prevent these latest tragedies? California politicians led by Governor Gavin Newsom are considering new legislation to strengthen public-carry laws, but questions remain as to how effective this legislation will be.
Other questions surround the shooters’ motivations for their acts. Tran’s acquaintances describe him as a quiet man who did not get along well with others. He was married twenty years ago but he and his wife divorced in 2005. His ex-wife told CNN that Tran had a short temper but was not violent. Other acquaintances suggest that Tran may have had conflicts with paid instructors at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio because he used to offer free lessons there. Police in Hemet, where Tran owned a double-wide trailer residence in a senior community, said that Tran had visited the Hemet police station weeks before the shooting to make “past fraud, theft, and poisoning allegations involving his family in the Los Angeles area 10 to 20 years ago.” Whether these allegations somehow played into his actions is unknown.
The Half Moon Bay shooting is better understood. Zhao has been openly talking with police and reporters since his arrest. He claims that he was “not in his right mind” on the day of the shooting but had endured years of bullying and long hours at the farm. His victims were fellow migrant farm workers and his supervisor. Zhao has expressed remorse for the killings and says he believes he has a mental illness, but he may face the death penalty if he is convicted.
There are also questions about the guns Tran and Zhao used and how they accessed them. Zhao claims he was able to purchase his semi-automatic pistol legally back in 2021. The kind of gun and high-capacity magazine Tran used, however, are illegal in the state of California, and evidence from his residence suggests he was manufacturing his own suppressors (silencers) – also a crime in the state. Tran was arrested for unlawful possession of a firearm in 1990 but had no criminal record beyond that.
Given that Tran was able to obtain the gun he used in the Monterey Park shooting illegally, the legislation California announced in the wake of the shootings likely would not have had much effect. The legislation focuses on stronger training requirements to obtain a gun, enhancing the existing licensing system for firearm purchase, and ensuring that the age to obtain a concealed-carry permit is 21. Yet if a person knew where to go to obtain an illegal firearm, he or she would obviously not be subject to these stricter laws. In Zhao’s case, a more extensive licensing or training process may have made it more difficult for him to purchase a gun. Of course, there is the possibility that Zhao would have been driven to seek out a firearm illegally.
This is not to say that there are no policies that would work to reduce the amount of gun violence in the United States, but it suggests that the policies must be at a higher level. For example, the U.S. lacks strong federal gun trafficking laws that would address illegal gun trafficking networks. Identifying the illicit pathways through which criminals access guns illegally would focus policies on the people actually committing crimes, rather than law-abiding gun owners. It could prevent guns from being trafficked into different states or areas and would make it harder to get a gun illegally, forcing people who truly want a firearm to go through the proper channels. There is hope in this, but it will require all of us who are paying attention to continue to speak out to our politicians and policy makers.
