and those who have been adjudged to be mentally deficient. and that is a term of art that's used -- the term is mentally defe defective, but it's for those who, by a court, have been adjudged to be not able to own a gun because of their mental illness. so in the bay area in the last five years, there have been eight mass shootings. and if you look across the country, this appears to be one that is not infrequent where an employee is intent on killing others and it's so painful and their families that are impacted by

this i just refer them. >> you talk about meaningful legislation at the same time, we are dealing with this in california and there is a certain mindset, chris and i were talking earlier about the proposal in texas to waive all restrictions and you would be able to go and purchase a gun there without permitting or id, just going to get a pack of gum. the contrast in views in this country is so dramatic and how do we overcome that? >> that's a very good question. california has some of the toughest gun violence protection laws in the country. we have been very robust in terms of providing those gun violence prevention laws, we are also though the second highest purchaser of guns in

the country after texas. and it underscores the fact that right now in this country gun purchases are up and support for gun violence prevention legislation is down. we are a gun culture that is really a little bit out of control, we have more guns in this country now than we have population, over 340 over 340 million guns. in circulation. >> that's an incredible number. >> mind-boggling. that you mentioned that two thirds of americans support some modest increase, maybe until recently, of tightening of controls with regard to gun legislation. so if we do have two thirds of the public how does that influence their senators? >> shere's we ou to getting pa

need probably 11 or 12, i doknow joe manchin is in favor of this but there is a loophole for those who go to gun shows or by from the internet so they are not so concerned about two thirds of americans who think we should close the loophole, they are concerned about primary opposition. that is what drives most members on the republican side right now and they are fearful that if they are not extremely conservative that donald trump will come out in support someone who is more conservative than they are. so they are putting their interest in getting reelected above the interest of the american people that just want to be able, to be safe.

>> when you talk about 340 million guns, even if you stop the sale of more guns this second you still have way more guns out there than you can possibly control or regulate. i mean it's like the genie is out of the bottle at this point and we needed to do something long ago so now what? we can tighten loopholes here and there, i just wonder, big picture, how do we get our arms around this to stop this type of thing? >> i don't think we know yet what kind of gun this particular shooter was using but to kill that many people in that short of time would suggest that it was a semiautomatic rifle or an assault weapon and the reason that there is such mass carnage, i mean think back to las vegas

and how many people were killed, over 50 people killed and god knows how many were injured and having been a survivor of gun violence you carry that with you the rest of your lives. so i think that we've got to look at new zealand, that will probably make some people crazy but they literally rounded up all the assault weapons. we do not need assault weapons in society. we shouldn't have people that have more firepower than the police in terms of protecting us and keeping us safe. so, everyone has a right to own a gun for self protection, for recreation, but we also know that when you have a gun in the house there's a higher likelihood of death associated. either by suicide or by some other set of circumstances. >> congresswoman, you speak with such passion and also authority on the subject,

because of your own experience so we thank you for sharing your insight and we will see whether there is any stomach for new zealand type regulations in this country that we appreciate your time. right now we want to take you to a news conference just to getting underway, the one at the assisted center. >> devoted to helping and healing, the das office, the red cross, and our many partners are helping and healing. i'm so grateful for the partnership that we have with -- and -- of the american red cross, casey holcomb who standing behind me, our victim services director, the first people we called this morning when we heard about the mass shooting was the american red cross and we said can we set up a family assistance center at your location in san jose and they immediately said yes.

and we are grateful to have partners like this in our community. we have community solutions here as well, rebecca's children services, the bill wilson center and of course our own counties behavioral health, dream power which is an organization we worked with in gilroy and i'll talk about the gilroy mass shooting in a little bit as well. and also we are grateful for our partners at the fbi. the fbi sent victim advocates immediately to san jose to help us and we are really grateful for them. this site here is our family assistance center for this mass shooting event, it is devoted to help anyone who is affected by the vta mass shooting. if you were hurt, if your family member was hurt, if you were a witness or you were nearby, we can and will help you , assist you and support you. we know tragically that mass shootings affect different

people in different ways. and over different periods of time. we are offering grief counseling, mental health counseling, victim compensation services, and many shoulders to cry on. there is a lot of tears today and there's going to be more tears in the days and weeks ahead. all of these services we offer here are free, we will be open to provide services through next week, we are open tonight until 7 pm or later if necessare spaniswe have translation services and people that speak every language necessary. sadly, so sadly,have experience with these tragedies.

we opened a family assistance center for the gilroy shooting less than two years ago, we served 750 people after that nightmare. two years later people there still need help and are being helped at our gilroy strong resiliency center. but this morning all of us woke up to a new nightmare. this one, two blocks away from my office, this whole county carries the scars, mental and physical. of gun violence. there are graves, plaques, memorials, candles, and obituaries. and while the das todo so much diligently through our prime strategies unit deif

guns used in multiple crimes to participate and sponsor gun buybacks, to take dangerous ghost guns and illegal assault rifles off the streets and importantly perhaps most importantly, to remove dangerous weapons out of the hands of dangerous people. through gun violence restraining orders or what or known as red flag laws. there is so much more to do. in coming days there will be more details about the why and the what of this terrible day. but today the das office is focusing on aling anhe trto make sure we never have to open center for mass shooting

victims. i pray that this is the last time we have to open such a center in our county. we are going to do everything we can today and in the weeks and months ahead to support all the victims and their families and we are also going to do everything that we can to find out if there is anything that could have been done to prevent this tragedy. in the last two years in our county because of the red flag laws in california we have petitioned successfully for hundreds of gun violence restraining orders which have removed guns from the hands of those mentally unstable or dangerous to themselves or others. i know that these efforts have saved countless lives. and while the th mass shooting and this tragedy falls with the perpetrator what i

pledge to you as the da is to look into all of the circumstances surrounding this to see if there is anything that could have been done. anything. we rely on neighbors and friends and the public to call law enforcement when they suspect that someone they know is unstable, has guns and is threatening to hurt themselves or other people. and those efforts help us prevent tragedies like this. we are fortunate in california that the existing red flag laws have been expanded and now coworkers can also make those reports to law enforcement. so one of the things we will be looking to do moving forward is to provide this kind of training not only to law enforcement officers but to other employers as well. to try to do everything we can to prevent crimes and tragedies

like this from happening again. i'm happy to take a few questions. >> do you have any since so far of being anymore victims, or anyone injured? >> what i can tell you about the number of victims is that there are many. and i want to give you, i don't want to give you the precise number yet because we want to wait and see what happens, we have not been able at this point to notify the victims families, all of the victims families have not received notification of their loss. we are working closely with the medical examiner's office which is working diligently to make sure that the identifications are correct, we want to get this 100% right.

i understand how hard this is for family members who want to know about their loved ones. i can only imagine, i can only imagine. and as soon as we have that information we will provide it to those family members in a private, confidential and supportive setting. like we have at the family have assistance center. you know, i know that for many of the families, some of whom i've talked to, when they said goodbye to their spouse this morning, their husband, they didn't mean goodbye forever, they meant goodbye until dinner time.

and i'm just so sorry. >> -- >> the question was do we believe that there were signs or red flags that the perpetrator in this case was going to commit a mass shooting? the answer is that this horrible shooting happened 10 hours ago and it's been diligently investigated both at the crime scene itself near vta as well as in the home of the perpetrator as well and we don't have the answers yet. as to whether there were red flags. if reported to law enforcement that may have averted this tragedy. we just don't know yet. >> --

>> do we believe he had a ghost gun? the information i have is no it was not a ghost gun, there were multiple guns but not a ghost gun. >> -- >> a message of love, empathy, support, not just today but in the weeks and months and years to come. we want to provide every kind of human service in the most humane and gentle way. and that is really why we came to this center. there are a lot of private rooms in the family assistance center and it's much easier for us to maintain the privacy and

the confidentiality of the victims families, many in in in experience, many family members and victims do not want their first moments of learning that their loved one is dead to be public. and to be something that can be seen over and over again message to them is i'm so sorry for your loss. and may god comfort you. that's really my message. >> have there been many reports -- can you confirm it yourself? >> i'm not going to confirm that, i feel like i've seen it so many different places, you have confirmed it and part of why i don't want to confirm it is i don't want to bring more

publicity to the person that did this by saying their name because i don't want to give more recognition to someone like this. >> -- >> have i talked to the family of the gunman? i have not talked to the family of the gunman at this point. so i don't know how they are doing. >> -- >> in how many hours will families be notified? >> -- wewillbe ab to provide notifications before the end of today. and we are working to have it done as quickly and carefully as possible. i'm so sorry. >> --

>> not all the families have been notified, some have. so some families are here and some are at other locations and also, let me just leave it at that. not all the families are here. some of them are here but not all of them. >> -- >> how many we've helped already? do you have that? >> we believe that we have eight or nine families here with support persons, each family group is quite large and we also have family members of people who work at the vta and a lot of supporters from the county who are here to show support for the victims families so we have quite a large group and we are doing our best to serve them as accurately and empathetically as we can. >> is that a mix of families who may be know that their loved one, or they don't have

any information at all? >> i'll refer back to what district attorney rosen said which is what we have families here and we have families at other locations, some families have been notified but not all families have been. >> -- >> my name is casey hawken, i'm the director of victim services for the district attorney's office. >> is there going to be some information -- >> yes. we have one of our community prosecutors is here and when we finish we are happy to have him talk to you -- whatever station you are from. otherwise we are good? >> one more question, can you give more detail about what happened this morning specifically? there was thoughts that there was a union meeting going on, do you have any more details there? >> i don't have any more details. other than after a morning meeting a tragedy happened. >> a morning union meeting?

>> yes. are you going to have another press conference? >> i don't know that we will have another press conference, we might, it's a little bit fluid but certainly we will be providing more information as soon as we have it. and it may be that we send out another press release when all the notifications have been made. okay? thank you very much. >> -- >> that was jeff rosen the santa clara county district attorney expressing his grief and again the best wishes, thoughts and prayers to family members who were at the assistance center right now and can you imagine just sitting there and hoping to get positive news? it has to be so agonizing. for everybody in that building right now. as you wait

the one positive that i took from what he said was that the laws that are on the books right now have resulted in hundreds of weapons being taken away from people who may be deemed dangerous so we don't really see that, you don't see something that hasn't happened in terms of a crime so that is encouraging on a day where there is not a lot of positive news. >> yes. the other thing he also pointed out was that this was not a ghost gun as far as they know, as in not something that was untraceable or built from a kit or something like that. so we will find out more i'm sure in the days ahead and in the meantime let's go over to reporter laura anthony who is still at the home of the suspect. laura? >> reporter: yes, hi, if there was any doubt that these two events were connected early this morning there is no doubt now, i'm at the home of the alleged shooter here in east san jose, and

this man sam cassidy whom we know to be a vta employee was living, there was a fire here this morning around 6:35 am that's when the call came into san jose fire department, they rushed over here to a two alarm fire in this house was fully involved. now we are showing you video that we took just a little while ago, these are bomb tech agents, either atf, fbi, the local bomb squad, they are all here and you can see them carrying what appears to be orange sandbags into this home. . them inside and we understand or know that there is at least ammunition and that there was some fuel found inside the home, it's not exactly what the purpose of bringing those bags is, to bring the men but perhaps they are going to be used as some sort of buffer to detonate something that they are concerned about inside the house. we haven't seen or heard anything since then but we did

see heavily clad bomb technicians going into this house a short time ago. now let's hear from a neighbor we talked with this morning who awoke to see all the activity around this fire on his nest cameras. >> i was in bed around 6:40 am and i heard all the fire departments coming out, i have a little nest camera up there so i was able to see a bunch of truck show up and then afterwards i saw the post about the vta shooting, i had no idea those two were correlated, i just got some information that he probably lit up his house and then went over there and went crazy and it's really shocking. i had no idea that type of stuff would happen right across the street from my house. >> were you familiar with anybody? >> no, usually i go for walks here every day but everybody, i just wouldn't expect that coming from straight across the

street. it hits a little too close to home literally. >> reporter: we are back here at the scene and you can see it's still a very active scene, there's no indication that any of these agencies plan to leave anytime soon. we talked with another neighbor who live directly across the street from cassidy's residence and he saw the fire as well this morning, he actually had some limited interaction with cassidy and said though that it was very limited, that the man was pretty quiet and would just say hello and goodbye and he never saw any other people living in that house coming or going, any one that appeared to be family. he too was shocked frankly when i told him that this man living across the street is the alleged shooter at the vta corporation yard at this morning, as for the latest on the fire we spoke with the battalion chief for san jose fire department and he said this was a two alarm blaze called in around 6:35 am this morning and it went to two

alarms he said because when his firefighters arrived the interior of this home was basically fully engulfed and it looked like a fast-moving fire and at one point it appeared that the house next door on the left-hand side as you are looking at the house was also about to go up in flames. unfortunately firefighters were able to knock that down. we tried to get to whether they were finding any fuels or if this was intentionally set, the fire battalion chief would not go there and he referred any questions related to the investigation to the larger investigation over to the law enforcement agencies. so we are live in east san jose near the home of the alleged shooter and this investigation is still very much ongoing. live in east san jose, laura anthony, abc7 news . >> laura before you go with respect to arrival of the bomb squad there, i don't know if they've made this public or not but did they feel compelled to get the bomb squad on-site because of what the dogs had sniffed out at the vta railyard

or did they see something at that location that made them think, we really need to proceed cautiously here? >> i'm not sure about that larry because i wasn't here first thing this morning but i will tell you that when we arrived, when i arrived midmorning san jose's bomb squad, san jose police was already here and the san jose fire department had what looked like firefighters going in and out in what appeared to be hazmat suits. i would venture to say that the arriving firefighters had a pretty good idea that there was some kind of fuel involved in this fire and perhaps they could hear the popping sounds that you hear when ammunition goes off so i would think that they would have a pretty good idea upon arrival that there might be something in the house that needed further investigation. i will tell you that the san jose bomb squad was quickly joined by the federal agencies, the fbi had a bomb tech and you could tell from the back of their shirts bomb techs were here. then came the atf and then came

the bomb technicians and much more heavily clad outfits going into this home and again we showed you that videowhere edlie these orange bags that looked like they were almost some kind of sandbag or buffer that might be used if they were going to either try to detonate something or perhaps protect themselves from something that they found inside the house. but again at this point all we know that they found for sure is ammunition and some fuel tanks of some sort. >> thank you. >> just to give you a quick summary of what happened today and why we've been on the air all this time, a mass shooting today in san jose at the vta light railyard with nine people dead including the gunman. and there is one person still critically injured. we are learning more about the suspect, our eye team reporter

dan noris is digging up a lot more information including on the suspects history of domestic and sexual abuse which he will have later on for us on our shows at 4 o'clock and more that you need to know that vta services will be suspended for a few days and the bus bridges will be replacing vta service in the meantime. >> and we have been posting the number to call for family members who are concerned, they will be gathering at the reunification center or the family assistance center and praying and hoping that their loved ones will reunite and that they will not get the horrible news that everybody fears at this point. >> before we go i want to let you know at the white house pres. biden has ordered flags to half staff to may 30 because of this tragedy in california today, world news tonight is going to continue our coverage of today's shootings at the san jose vta yard, abc7 news will

be back at 4 o'clock with a lot more information but certainly a tragic dark day in the bay area with a long road ahead. thanks for joining tonight the deadly workplace shootingunmanpeng fir at a transportation facility in san jose, california, shooting and killing at least eight victims. authorities say they were shot in two different building. the bomb squad searching for possible explosives. police identifying the shooter, an employee, found dead at the scene. they say he set his home on fire before driving to work. a short time ago president biden lowering flags to half staff for a mass shooting. the fifth time since he became president, saying enough. the major news