L.A.'s Ammo Ban
By Ed Apple
The whackos here, or rather there, in the city of Los Angeles have apparently discovered that "guns don't kill people, people kill people."
City council member Mike Hernandez is quoted in the April 4, 2001 edition of the L.A. Times as saying,
"Our reality is, it's not the guns that are killing people, it's the
ammunition. A partial ban is not going to deal with the issue of what makes me feel safe in my home."
Mike didn't say just exactly what that "issue" was. Nor did he say just exactly how the ammunition was killing people that, if he's to be believed, isn't being fired by guns.
The vote was 10 to 2 to require permits for ammunition buyers. For the people who are unfortunate enough to live in the "City of Angels," to purchase certain high-caliber bullets they will need a permit and background check.
I guess it hasn't occurred to
Mike Hernandez, Nick
Pacheco, Alex Padilla, Rita
Walters, Mark Ridley-Thomas,
Laura Chick, Mike Feuer,
Ruth Galanter, Nate
Holden, and Cindy Miscikowski that banning so-called "assault weapons" in this state has done nothing to stem crime.
Why else ban ammo, and require a once-a-year background check/10 day waiting period?
Rudy Svorinich and
Hal Bernson opposed this piece of dim-witted "law making," while
Joel Wachs and John Ferraro were absent.
Ismael Ileto, the brother of slain postal carrier Joseph Ileto, killed the same day in Chatsworth as Buford Furrow shot up a Jewish day care center, urged the council to ban all ammunition sales in the city limits. Never mind that the firearm AND ammo was bought in another state.
An unnamed NRA spokesman said the Sports Arms Manufacturers Institute indicated that a partial ban might outlaw as much as 70% of the ammo available in the city. Not surprisingly, the NRA opposes the ban.
According to the Times, a complete ban vote was short by a 5 to 7 vote. Looks like some L.A. politicians know which side their of bread is buttered on. People like Laura Chick, Hal Bernson, Mike Feuer, Ruth Galanter, Nate Holden, Cindy Miscikowski and Rudy Svorinich Jr.
With no total ban, Hernandez and Pacheco, along with their fellow council members, asked the city attorney to write up a so-called "compromise ordinance," one that would ban "certain high-caliber" ammo, require a permit, and a once-a-year 10 day waiting period/criminal background check.
Cindy Miscikowski and Mike Feuer argued that a complete ban wouldn't survive a court challenge. But they did say the permits and background checks would somehow make the city safer.
It'll probably really irritate criminals and gang-bangers to have to drive, take a bus, or even walk all the way to another city to buy ammo for their illegal guns.
Mike Feuer, noted L.A. city anti-self-defense/gunner, said that as many as 100,000 people buy ammo in L.A. city. This out of a population of some six million souls, give or take a few hundred thousand.
Mr. Feuer also said "Criminals and kids should not get their hands on tools of violence, on guns or ammunition." It was not made clear what these other "tools of violence" might be.
The anti-gun group Women Against Gun Violence also supported the partial ban and permit. Los Angeles city already requires that ammunition buyers provide a thumbprint and a signature.
A LAPD study said that only 3% of people who have bought ammo were prohibited or showed fake (read: bogus) ID's. The article didn't say how many of those denied people or those who showed bogus ID's were arrested and prosecuted under state laws already on the books.
Mike Feuer has estimated that the annual permit should run around $14. If 100,000 people a year purchased a permit, the city would stand to make $1,400,00 a year. Hmmm.
The background checks would use "a database used by the state Department of Justice." Let's hope it's not the same one used to check for denied people.
City council member Hal Bernson said the proposed ban would be "onerous for law-abiding gun owners." He also said
"We do have to respect the 2nd Amendment rights of people," and "Banning the sale of ammunition is not going to keep it out of the hands of criminals. They will get it in the next city."
Urging a total ban, Nick Pacheco said "I don't understand why we are folding today and doing anything less than a complete ban."
Pacheco is a former deputy DA. You'd think he would know better, because, as he pointed out, this issue mainly affects the people who live in the central part of the city, who are minorities, and are the ones most likely to be victims of violent crime.
So much for self-defense.
Pacheco also said, "This is an area where we have to send a message to our inner-city youth, The victims here are primarily Latinos or African Americans, and I think they should be told we care about them."
Well, gee Nick, if you "care about them," why are you so afraid to these give law-abiding citizens the ability to save their
own lives and the lives of their loved one's?
Chicago and Washington have adopted similar bans on ammunition sales to the one advocated by the majority of the city council, and look at what has happened there.
Chuck Michel, NRA attorney, has said that a lawsuit will be filed to challenge the ban, at least partly, on state preemption laws. He also said the law won't be effective, and that Feuer hopes to use the ban to boost his campaign for city attorney.
Michel said also that "Any bad guy who wants to can get any kind of ammunition he
wants, despite this. This is more about Mike Feuer's campaign than about public safety."
It's no secret in L.A. that Mike Feuer hates guns, and gun owners. The city council has already banned handguns that are perfect for legal concealed carry permit holders, if you could get one. This would be the so-called "pocket rocket" ban that has just been passed here, or rather there, in L.A. city.
It never ceases to amaze me how some politicos want to treat their constituents like school children. They want to punish the whole class for the actions a relatively few low-life's.
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