City Backs Down on Cheap Handgun Ban

After unanimously agreeing to ban Saturday night specials last month, the Sierra Madre City Council backtracked Tuesday night, voting down an ordinance to bar the local sale of the small, cheaply made handguns.

Sierra Madre has no gun stores, but agreed to consider the law after the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments urged the 30 cities in the valley to pass bans modeled on ordinances adopted by the cities of Los Angeles and West Hollywood. The proposal sailed through on first reading last month but ran into trouble two weeks later, when two lawyers warned that gun groups could sue the city.

For the ordinance to become law, it had to pass a second reading Tuesday night. It failed on a 3-2 vote.

Councilman Doug Hayes, who was the decisive vote against the proposal, said there were better paths to gun control. Instead of banning Saturday night specials, he proposed that the city alter its zoning laws to require a conditional use permit for gun stores. Now, a gun store need not go through any zoning process to open up in Sierra Madre’s business district.

Councilman James Hester, who proposed the Saturday night special ban, said such a law would be stronger than banning the cheap handguns.

The effort to ban the handguns in Sierra Madre was slowed last month when Chuck Michel, a lawyer for the California Rifle and Pistol Assn., and local attorney William Garr warned the council that the city could incur legal costs for passing a purely symbolic law.