Ban These Dangerously Indiscriminate, Cruel Weapons

Thank you for your article on the public hearing our Sheriff’s Office held, as required by AB 481, on their retention and use of military weapons. Sheriff’s Office Discusses Military Equipment (11/22/23), by Michael Singer. I was one of over a dozen people from our congregation, Starr King Unitarian Universalist Church, in Fairview who attended to ask the Sheriff to ban the use of scattershot multi-munition weapons. This is a type of indiscriminate pain compliance weapon banned elsewhere in the country.
Scattershot multi-munitions have cruelly been used against mentally ill people incarcerated at Santa Rita Jail on four occasions in the past two years. These multiple projectile “scattershot” weapons are inherently indiscriminate. Analysis by Physicians for Human Rights finds that these weapons are more dangerous than single projectiles. They cannot target a single individual or a specific body part. They can result in excessive injury to targeted individuals when they impact sensitive body parts. They can blind someone hit in the eyes. Because they cannot be aimed and are sometimes delivered by grenade type devices, they can strike innocent bystanders.
Amnesty International has called for a ban against such weapons. Sheriffs’ departments in San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Joaquin, San Mateo, and Solano Counties do not have or use these weapons. We call upon Sheriff Sanchez to heed the call of Amnesty International, American Friends Service Committee, Interfaith Coalition for Justice in our Jails, Families Advocating for the Seriously Mentally Ill and other groups calling for a ban of these dangerously indiscriminate and cruel weapons.

–Bob Britton, Castro Valley