The Public Safety Committee of the Los Angeles City Council approved a
package of gun control measures Monday that would make it easier for
landlords to evict tenants with illegal firearms and ammunition, place
new requirements on ammunition vendors and allow the city to
permanently seize cars from some gang members.
The measures
were introduced by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and Councilmen Greig
Smith and Jack Weiss, a candidate for city attorney, in May as part of
the mayor's antigang initiative.
City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo appeared at the news conference to show
support for the efforts.
Delgadillo spoke in favor of the
measure to seize vehicles used by gang members, which originated in his
office according to his staff.
Under the eviction measure
proposed by Weiss and council members Janice Hahn and Eric Garcetti,
landlords could evict a tenant who illegally used guns or ammunition
within 1,000 feet of a rental property.
The committee also approved measures requiring
ammunition vendors to obtain permits from the Police Commission for
sales and to conduct those sales face-to-face with buyers.
Under one of the proposed ordinances, the employees handling ammunition would also be subject to a background check.
Another
measure creates a requirement for gun dealers to inspect their
inventory twice a year -- reporting any lost or stolen weapons to the
Police Department and providing an affidavit of the inspections.
The committee also approved an ordinance banning the sale of .50-caliber ammunition.
Rhonda Foster, whose 7-year-old son Evan was killed in Inglewood's
Darby Park in 1997 by a gunman wielding an assault-style weapon, spoke
in favor of the measure at the meeting.
No one spoke in opposition to the measures at Monday's committee meeting.
But Long Beach attorney C.D. Michel, the law partner of city attorney
candidate Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich, wrote a letter to several of the
committee members accusing Weiss of politicizing the issue to benefit
his campaign for city attorney.
Michel, who wrote the letter
on behalf of clients -- the National Rifle Assn. and the California
Rifle and Pistol Assn. -- said the majority of the measures were
"costly, naive and ineffective policy" -- arguing that a number of the
proposals were likely to face legal challenge and that others were
redundant because they address areas already covered by state law.
Weiss noted that lawyers for the city attorney believe the ordinances are legally defensible.
"I've
prosecuted gun crimes as a federal prosecutor, and I'm proud that I've
worked on gun legislation my entire time in the City Council. It's a
sick industry, and this is the type of charge we expect from them," he
said.
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