By Malachi Kudura, Contributing Writer
Saturday March 9th, 2024, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department held a Gun Safety Event. This event was held at 1st Baptist Church of Lemon Grove. This was a drive thru gun safety event that allowed those interested to trade their guns for gift cards. They also gave away free gun cables, locks and handgun security boxes. This was their first event in Lemon Grove but they look forward to doing more events like this in the future.
The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department partnered with San Diego County District Attorney’s Office and the La Mesa Police Department. The County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency was also there to give out information about mental health and suicide prevention.
Tony Johnson Chaplin with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said, “We need to communicate more, we need to sit down and have conversations. We’re here to be part of the community, let them know we’re all human. We are here to help and not harass or cause problems, we are better together.”
Michael Jimenez, the Interim Pastor at the 1st Baptist Church of Lemon Grove said, “It’s very important to do events like these with law enforcement. It helps us find out the needs of the community. We want to be a blessing and serve the people of this community.”
Deputy Asia McCoy has been with the San Diego Sheriff’s Department for over 12 years.
She spoke about why it’s important to serve in this community, “When I work at the schools the children are happy to see me, due to our positive interaction. That positive interaction is important to me.” It’s very important we realize that we’re all human and need to communicate with mutual respect.
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