The Bay Area has become a war zone, according to a local community group, and something has to be done about it.

That's the reason concerned San Francisco residents will join Reverend Jesse Jackson at a community rally on Sunday in San Francisco's Western Addition.

Jackson plans to attend a call for peace at Ella Hill Hutch Community Center at 1050 McAllister St. at 2 p.m.

His planned visit is a response to the violence that claimed more than a dozen lives in the Bay Area last weekend.

The recent spike in violence has some locals saying enough is enough.

"There were more people killed in the Bay Area this weekend than U.S. soldiers in Iraq," said Kevin Bard, a San Francisco State University political science student and intern of the CLAER Project, a community group that helps families of violence victims and promotes peace on San Francisco streets.

"We've seen more coverage of Paris Hilton's criminal activity than on the war on our streets," Bard added.

Two early homicides in Oakland kick-started a weekend of violence that included four killings each in San Francisco and Oakland and more in Richmond and unincorporated North Richmond.

Some blame the rise in homicides on hot, agitating weather and on more youths on the streets during the summer school break. Others are citing lack of legislation geared at stopping violence as the reason for increased bloodshed.

"We as a society had a fleeting moment of attention on this contributing gun violence as a result of the Virginia Tech incident," said Sharen Hewitt, The CLAER Project's executive director. "This incident vanished from the headlines and in the continued silence, weapons of mass destruction continue to proliferate inner-city neighborhoods while the NRA (National Rifle Association) goes unchallenged, and our youth are now more likely to have access to a gun than to a one-day pass to an amusement park."

Some legislation that will be on topic in the call for peace this Sunday: A redirection of federal war spending and the adoption of a comprehensive urban agenda; increased emphasis on gun control at the state level, including annual gun registration; and the development of a comprehensive five-year plan to address violence in San Francisco, and a commitment in the City's budget to prioritize violence beyond the police.