Rep. Mike Thompson decries San Jose rail yard shooting, nation’s 15th mass killing this year

The shooting deaths of at least eight rail agency employees and a suspected gunman at a San Jose maintenance yard Wednesday drew fresh outrage from the North Bay’s senior congressman, Rep. Mike Thompson, a lead campaigner against gun violence for eight years now.

Thompson, a St. Helena Democrat who heads up the House’s task force on gun violence, noted the nation’s latest mass shooting was “right down the road” from his district.

“We’ve had tragic events in all areas of the country, and it happens darn near every day,” said Thompson.

“There is nobody far removed,” he said. “No geographic place is exempt from gun violence.”

Asked for his initial reaction to the Bay Area tragedy, Thompson said: “You can’t help but just be heartbroken for the victims’ families. Their lives have been upended now.”

The suspected shooter, Samuel J. Cassidy, 57, was an employee of the Valley Transportation Authority, which operated the light-rail maintenance yard near downtown San Jose where the shooting took place Wednesday morning. Cassidy took his own life, authorities said. The victims were VTA workers, officials said.

It was 15th mass killing in the U.S. so far this year: Eighty-six people have died in mass killings across the nation this year, compared with 106 for all of 2020, according to a database compiled by the Associated Press and Northeastern University that tracks every mass killing over the last 15 years, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The San Jose attack is the sixth in a public place this year — all of them shootings. The database defines mass killings as four people dead, not including the shooter, meaning the overall toll of gun violence is much higher when adding in smaller incidents.

Thompson, the senior congressman representing Sonoma County, is chairman of the House Democrats’ Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, formed in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in 2012.

His measure requiring universal background checks for all firearms purchases was approved by the House in March and remains under consideration in the Senate.

A Vietnam War combat veteran, hunter and gun owner, Thompson said President Joe Biden would sign the bill if it reaches his desk.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, said last month the measure could get Senate approval with modifications, such as relaxing limits on gun sales between family members.

Senate Republicans “haven’t been very good on this,” Thompson said.

Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said his office is investigating any firearms linked to suspected shooter Cassidy, the Chronicle reported. He would not provide details about what firearms had so far been found at the shooting scene, only saying there were “multiple weapons” collected as evidence, the newspaper reported.

Investigators were looking into how Cassidy obtained the firearms and whether law enforcement had previously received any reports that raised concerns about Cassidy.

About 80% of firearms acquired for criminal purposes are obtained through transfers from unlicensed dealers, according to the Giffords Law Center, led by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head in a 2011 mass shooting that claimed six lives and injured a dozen others.

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 707-521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @guykovner.