Three children among dead in mass shooting at California birthday party

[canetoad]

Source: The Age

Stockton, California: Four people have been killed, including three children, in a mass shooting at a birthday party in the US that investigators have described as a “targeted incident”.

“It’s heartbreaking,” said Heather Brent, a spokesperson for the San Joaquin County sheriff’s office, east of San Francisco, California.
Emergency services at the scene of a mass shooting in Stockton, California.

Brent said the dead victims were aged 8, 9, 14 and 21. Eleven people were also wounded. No one was in custody by Sunday afternoon, local time, and she did not elaborate on why authorities believe the shooting was intentional or who might have been targeted.

The shooting occurred just before 6pm on Saturday inside a hall, which shares a car park with other businesses. Stockton is a city of 320,000 people, about 65 kilometres south of Sacramento.

Read more: https://www.theage.com.au/world/north-america/three-children-among-dead-in-mass-shooting-at-california-birthday-party-20251201-p5njpt.html

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Archive: https://archive.md/RxMRX

[Deuxcents]

1. Who would target children at a birthday party? Too many damned guns. Period

[maxsolomon]

13. A young male, or young males, in a rival gang.

Stockton doesn't seem like it would be the place this type of mass shooting happens.

[RazorbackExpat]

14. Apparently, only 4% of US cities are more dangerous than Stockton

[maxsolomon]

15. It's got issues:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockton,_California#Rankings

Rankings
In 2020, U.S. News & World Report named Stockton as America's most diverse city.[75]
Due to a number of socio-economic problems, Stockton has been subject to a series of negative national rankings:

In a 2010 Gallup poll, Stockton was tied with Montgomery, Alabama for the most obese metro area in the US with an obesity rate of 34.6 percent.[76]
In the February 2012 issue of Forbes, the magazine ranked Stockton the eighth most miserable US city, largely as a result of the steep drop in home values and high unemployment.[42]
In 2012 the National Insurance Crime Bureau ranked Stockton seventh in auto theft rate per capita in the US.[77]
In 2012, Stockton was ranked as the tenth most dangerous city in America and the second most dangerous in California (behind Oakland).[78]
In 2013, Stockton was ranked as the third least literate city in the U.S. in a study by Central Connecticut State University, with less than 17% of adults holding a college degree,[79] and ABC.com ranked the city as the third least literate of all U.S. cities with a population of more than 250,000 behind Bakersfield, California, and Corpus Christi, Texas.[80]

[rollin74]

16. Stockton has major gang and crime problems

I have several friends who went to college there (UOP) and they all talk about how unsafe they felt living there because of the crime

[elleng]

2. ;-(

[kimbutgar]

3. And that's a red part of California a lot of magas live there!

[onenote]

6. It's actually a blu-ish area

Stockton has a Democratic mayor and two Democratic house members. While the county in which it is located narrowly went for Trump in 2024, it went for Biden and Clinton by large margins in 2016 and 2020.

Demographically, it is heavily Latino -- over 44 percent. Next largest Demographic is Asian,aroun 21 percent. While population is only around 17 percent. Party registration is heavily Democratic.

[kimbutgar]

10. The orange piggy won that area in 2024 by a slim margin

[onenote]

12. Yes, that's what I wrote.

Did you miss that?

[Mike Nelson]

4. Interesting as I watch the...

... "all news" networks this Sunday. This mass killing has gone largely unnoticed. The likewise awful shooting of two is still getting a lot of airtime... "FBI EXPANDS INVESTIGATION INTO DC SHOOTING SUSPECT" is the MSNOW discussion. Also, this is, I believe, one of their rare weekend "Live" discussions. CNN is promoting their stupid New Year's Eve and showing some of their CNN "Heroes" - pre-taped stuff. FOX has their unfunny comedians comparing dogs and dog owners. News-Nation is doing some segment about NYC's Rockettes. Killing four children is "ho-hum" nowadays.

[canetoad]

5. I'm kinda surprised

That the story showed up in a Melbourne, Au. paper before it showed on DU.

[chowder66]

7. FWIW it was posted yesterday Sat Nov 29, 2025, 08:45 PM

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220838499

[canetoad]

8. Thank you

Different forum, so I guess this can stay.

[chowder66]

9. You're welcome. I had seen it but then started questioning myself when I saw your post.

Glad I wasn't imagining it!!

[twodogsbarking]

11. Livin' in the USA. Well not these three children. Somebody give me a cheeseburger.

If you are not willing to make any changes then you are ok with the problem. Our country is sick and puking it's guts out.