LA PALMA : City Council Endorses Gun Control

Tackling a politically volatile issue, the City Council has unanimously endorsed the California Police Chiefs Assn.’s position advocating gun control.

Police chiefs statewide have called for “a mandatory system whereby firearms are registered with a law enforcement authority.” The chiefs, in a lengthy position paper on gun control, also unequivocally oppose any private ownership of military-style assault weapons.

La Palma Police Chief David S. Barr on Tuesday presented the statewide chiefs’ position to the City Council.

“It’s a politically hot issue,” the chief said, as he launched his talk. “I’m leaving this up to your discretion, but my personal position is there are too many guns out there.”

Barr said that in February a majority of police chiefs statewide voted for the gun-control position paper and that the paper has been submitted to the League of California Cities, of which La Palma is a member.

The police chiefs’ position paper says, in part: “We as a society have for far too long treated the tragic consequences that result from an armed America as but a footnote to the long- but falsely held notion that a highly armed populace is necessary for the preservation of our freedoms.”

Mayor Wally D. Linn, noting that he is a member of the League of California Cities’ public safety committee, said he believes the league will support the police chiefs’ gun-control position.

“I think we need some (gun) controls,” Linn said. “We’re not voting on a law here. We’re voting on a position paper.”

No one on the council or in the audience spoke against the gun-control position paper.