Colt Industries Drops Suit Against L.A. Weapon Ban; NRA Challenge Expected

Colt Industries, manufacturer of the AR-15 assault rifle, abruptly dropped its lawsuit Friday challenging the city of Los Angeles’ ban on semiautomatic weapons.

City Atty. James Hahn said Colt notified the city that it had moved to dismiss the suit, and city officials anticipate a new legal challenge by the National Rifle Assn. against similar ordinances throughout California.

The NRA said it will ask the California Supreme Court next week to rule that the growing number of local bans on rapid-firing assault rifles are an illegal intrusion on the state’s authority to regulate firearms.

A federal judge refused this week to grant Colt Industries’ request for a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of the Los Angeles ban on the sale and possession of assault rifles, but city officials agreed to delay enforcement of the prohibition on possession of the guns until March 1.

Hahn said Friday that the city will voluntarily maintain the moratorium until March 1 to avoid confusion. After that, he said, all assault weapons covered under the ordinance must be disposed of or rendered inoperable. The immediate ban on the sale of the firearms remains in effect.

The ordinance was unanimously adopted by the City Council on Feb. 7 after Patrick Edward Purdy, 24, opened fire with an AK-47 assault rifle in a Stockton schoolyard, killing five children and wounding 29 others before shooting himself in the head with a pistol. Authorities said the weapons had been sold to him legally.

At least six California cities have adopted similar ordinances barring the sale and possession of assault rifles, as has Santa Clara County, and nearly a dozen other cities throughout the country have ordinances under consideration. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has postponed consideration of an ordinance until later this month.

Hahn said he is “gratified” by Colt’s decision to drop the suit, a move that he attributed to the company’s failure to win an immediate restraining order against the ordinance and to the NRA’s reported plans to file a comprehensive lawsuit within the next few weeks.

“Frankly, I think what’s going on here is a little forum shopping,” Hahn said. “The people that are going to be attacking our ordinance tried in federal court to get a temporary restraining order; they failed. Now they’re going to try it in state court.”

Attorneys for Colt Industries did not return telephone calls, and a secretary at the law firm representing Colt said the company would have no immediate comment. Hahn said the company did not indicate why it had dropped the suit.

John Gardiner, assistant general counsel for the NRA, disclosed earlier this week that the organization plans to file a major lawsuit soon, probably directly with the state Supreme Court, asserting that most local ordinances adopted in the wake of the Stockton shooting unconstitutionally intrude into the state’s field of regulation.

Times staff writer Carl Ingram contributed to this story.