 Hey everyone, in this episode we are going to be covering the recent tragedy that happened in Monterey Park, California. It left 10 innocent people dead. The gunman was Asian. This happened within the Chinese community. And although mass shootings seem to be unfortunately a common occurrence in America, it's definitely not something you expect to happen within the immigrant Asian community. So I do think that there's some stuff to unpack from here. First off, RIP to all 10 people who passed away. I heard that they were all in their 50s, 60s, and 70s, which means that their families are impacted forever by this. I know that they would probably ask for privacy in this time. We're going to be donating to the GoFundMe, the Monterey Park Lunar New Year Victims Fund. And I hope that anybody else watching this that feels compelled to do so do that. I think in all the internet and the media talk about what happened, the motive, who's going to politicize this event, who's not able to politicize this event, the actual impact on the families can get overshadowed. And yeah, so we just want to go ahead and put that out there first. Point number two, Andrew, this is kind of personal for anybody who's obviously lived in the 626 St. Gabriel Valley, particularly in Monterey Park, very nearby Garfield and Garvey where this occurred. And you know, that's just such an iconic place in the 626 for good memories. And now it's like completely going to have a different energy and a different image. And it's just something that you never want to see Monterey Park trending for this reason. You know, I mean, a mass shooting is probably one of the last things you would think would occur in Monterey Park. Yeah. No, definitely. And it is shocking. And I think it's Monterey Park in this area, the 626 in general is going to be changed forever, maybe. So I guess we're going to move on to just basic details about what happened. Obviously, if you guys want to read all the articles, you can. We're not going to get into too much detail. But these are the things that have came out from the events that happened. Yeah. Obviously, there was a 72-year-old Asian male. You know, he was a divorcee. He was looking for his wife. He didn't get an invite to the Ballroom Lunar New Year Festival, you know, event that they had. He was very, very disgruntled. I heard he had actually been off the grid for several years. I'm assuming, obviously, nobody knows, very, very poor mental health. He gets a hold of a very high-powered firearm. And he went to do the worst thing possibly that you could imagine at about 10.30 at night. Yeah. And so after the first location in Monterey Park, he does go to another dance hall in Alhambra, which is also close to where we used to live as well. And he attempts to look for more victims. However, he is stopped by a 26-year-old Brandon Sey, who disarms him and kicks him out and calls the police. So shout out to Brandon. You know, you need to give credit and celebrate the heroes while they're there. But yeah. And then he ends up in Torrance, California, in a white van. And he offs himself and ends that kind of whole ordeal. And that's pretty much the general details. Of course, there's a lot more details coming out of, like, interviews with his wife and other witnesses and stuff like that. But overall, yeah, it's a tragic event. And I think it leads to a lot of different reactions, David. A lot of different people weighed in. And some people are taking it, obviously, super tragically and very seriously. And then, of course, as the internet would, there's there's people who are not taking it as seriously. But I guess what are the main, like, reactions to this? Yeah. Well, I guess that, of course, there's always the sorrow on a micro level in the sense of, like, people saying, man, this always happens in America. Why does it always happen in America? Why are we always willing to accept this? Or other people go, you know, it's just a part of being American, almost like the structures that we have built in that a lot of people are not changing. Obviously, it turns the more further up and up you go into a huge debate about gun control, non-gun control, personal responsibility, mental health. And, you know, a lot of people sort of were saying, oh, look at the mainstream media, because it's not like a racist white male, you know, this side wanted it to be that or because it's not a criminal of another color. This other political side wanted it to be that because that's what would serve their political agenda more so. But because it was almost like an internal, older Asian immigrant, you like internal thing, there was a lot of talk about people like, oh, well, nobody knows what to do with this in the sense of like this side cannot jujitsu it in terms to push their larger macro agendas. And this side cannot use it to push their political resolutions and bills. Yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot of things involved. I think that the big the names of the victim not not being released. And, you know, I'm sure that's partially because of the families of the victims. They don't maybe want the names out there. But I think like, you know, you know, everybody's just going to it's human to just try to relate to things that feel closer to you or people that look like you and because this happened in the Asian immigrant community, particularly, I mean, we're talking about Garvey Ave. Like we were very familiar with this area. It's like, yeah, it's it's like, I guess a little bit outside of just mainstream America period. So I think there's some people talking about that. But I mean, either way, obviously, like people are kind of wondering what's next, like, what does this lead to? Is it actually going to lead to gun reform? Because I'm sure he got this weapon illegally. It seems like an illegal weapon to have in California. In California, it does have very, very strict gun laws. But of course, it doesn't stop bad people from getting weapons. Yeah, I mean, I don't really want to get into the gun aspect, even though a lot of people are making it about the gun, right? Because he had a Cobra M 11. It's almost like a in between a pistol and a machine gun, like some sort of like hybrid. I would say that, you know, for me, there is a discussion about mental health, right, especially mental health in the older Asians. And immigrant community, because that's got to be the sector of the Asian community. First of all, the Asian community in general, doesn't have a lot of exposure to mental health talk, even the second gen kids that are born in America, much less than a second gen of another. They don't do it in Asia. But let alone you can imagine only that the mental health is talks or rehabilitation is really low amongst the older people. Yeah. And I think that hopefully my hope is that, you know, because gun laws are so hard to change and there's so many mass shootings and nothing changes. So I don't want to talk about that. But what I think can change is systems in place in this whole different way of looking at mental health amongst the older immigrant Asians, right? A lot of these immigrant Asians, they they went through a lot of things in Asia. They're from that generation. I mean, he's 72. He remembers a lot from Asia and coming over here might have carried over, possibly some people said he potentially and these are all like, I don't know. You know, some people said he had PTSD from the war, whatever. Yeah, exactly. And I think that, you know, when someone in the community looks disturbed and obviously he was actually part of the ballroom dancing community years ago, left it. Maybe he kind of got like exed out or left out of things. And then it rolled and kind of snowballed into that thing. But yeah, I mean, it's tough, but people need to get checked on. And this is the nature of America where, you know, people do have mental illness, people do get angry. There's a lot of things in this country that can make you angry. And then also there is access to weapons, you know. And especially like lonely men that are not grounded in society, that are not seeing people that do not have hope for a better day. That are not part of a community that are essentially like off the grid. You know, they're like detached from societal systems. Yeah, I mean, and even like if you want to take it to an Asian aspect, if you know about sometimes like the mass incidents that happen in Asia, right, where there's actually no guns, but sometimes people do it with knives and stuff. And cars, yeah, cars or whatever. You know, oftentimes it's a clap back or a revenge on society. Maybe they're poor. Maybe they're starting to see all this wealth flow in. And, you know, these are things that is hard to change, right? It's hard to tell people, hey, don't be wealthy, right? Like you can't tell people that. But that's why I think the talk about mental health and just having those conversations and checking up on people who have fallen off the grid or fallen out of the group and fallen out of like, I guess, you know, public society. Like it is important to check. And I think in all these arguments about everything, you know, there was an argument about like, why isn't this getting more mainstream coverage? Oh, is it because it's Asian on Asian? That's a discussion, right? I think that's part of it. There's a discussion about like, is it about gun control or gun culture or gun availability? Or is it about assault weapons? But then now the gun was even a half assault gun, half pistol. You know, that's why they call it an assault pistol. And then there's a whole another debate about Asian and mental health and stuff like that. And it's just like, man, I just think that in all of that, it's all like a stew. You know how a lot of people are like trying to focus it? When you stew a bunch of elements together, how can you say what was like the dominant element? Yeah. I mean, dude, it's even shocking. And I think the reason why you never expected in the Asian community, let's be honest, like gun violence within the Asian community is super, super low. Like it is statistically so low. So it's almost like in certain Asian communities, and I'm just saying certain Asian communities, it almost, and we grew, and we lived in the 66, by the way, this is why I'm talking about it's like, it almost feels like guns don't exist. Like it's not a gun toting area. It's not even, there's not even a lot of like gun ranges. People maybe do airsoft, they barely think about weapons. So I think when, you know, something like this happens, it's like, whoa, like we, it's a reminder that unfortunately you do live in America and that, well, and that their guns are plentiful here. Yeah. I would almost say that the shootings that I have seen into Asian in even that area are more almost common amongst immigrants than from the kids that are like born second gen. Statistically speaking, people of the same community or group or tribe are the ones more likely to attack each other. So yes, it's a lot of like, there have been immigrant crimes. This is not the first time that a Chinese or Asian immigrant has killed other people in that area. But the level of this is massive. Usually it's like a, you know, like a one-on-one type of thing. But anyways, guys, you know, I think again, it's a hard thing to talk about. You know, it's not supposed to be a fun video, but hopefully you found it interesting and hopefully this helps people have this conversation because, you know, everybody's saddened by this and everybody's shocked. And I think it's easy to be derailed by the comments. Like I said, people are trying to pull it this way, pull it that way. Some people are mad that nobody can use it. And you know, but obviously as an Asia community, a Chinese community or people who have lived in the 626, you're just sad for the families and looking for a way forward from this point. Yeah, I mean, it just goes to show you there are deranged, broken, angry men of every group. That's a fact, you know. Guys, make sure you check out the GoFundMe link. It is verified, so, you know, I know that that's the thing that people- All right, everybody, go ahead, leave your comments and leave your thoughts down below. Check out the GoFundMe links. You guys can check out other links to some of the news articles that have more details if you want to delve into it. Thank you so much for watching and until next time, we're out. Peace.