Villaraigosa wants to use gun restrictions, databases to take on gangs

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Tuesday unveiled plans to target gangs and guns – including confiscating cars used in gang-related crimes – with a series of new city ordinances.

The mayor said the city planned to employ new technology and databases to better track criminals and to identify neighborhoods vulnerable to violence. In announcing the initiative, the mayor cited a rash of recent shootings, including one that left a 14-year-old girl dead in Highland Park and another at a Catholic school fundraiser two weeks ago that wounded three people.

The proposed city ordinances include banning .50-caliber, military-style ammunition; licensing ammunition vendors; requiring anyone making ammunition purchases to do so in person; requiring gun-store owners to make regular gun inventories and report to local law enforcement; and outlawing installation of secret gun compartments in vehicles.

Chuck Michel, the attorney who represents the National Rifle Assn. and the California Rifle Assn., said Thursday that the mayor’s proposals “a rehash.”

“The bottom line is that the majority of these proposals have either been tried and failed elsewhere because they don’t focus on the criminal or they are covered by proposed bills still being vetted by the legislature in Sacramento,” Michel said.

Michel added that a recent decision by the state court of appeals and confirmed by the California Supreme Court drastically limits individual cities from regulating guns and ammunition.

The mayor also proposed giving the city attorney the power to forfeit vehicles used in gang crimes and giving landlords the power to evict tenants convicted of using and possessing illegal weapons and ammunition.

He also called on federal legislation that would include micro-stamping every bullet produced in the United States.

So far this year 670 people have been victims of guns crimes, and 70% of all shootings were gang-related, according to the LAPD.

The mayor also announced the deployment of 40 additional officers to “high gang crime” areas.