Ammunition Law Gets a Temporary Reprieve

Pasadena’s ammunition registration ordinance has won a temporary stay because too few City Council members were present at a meeting this week to change the law.

The City Charter requires that at least four of the seven council members vote on a change in city law. At a meeting Monday, Mayor Chris Holden deferred action on the ordinance because only three of five council members present favored repealing the law.

The law, the first of its kind, was enacted with great fanfare in 1995 in the wake of a spate of gun violence. It requires anyone buying ammunition within the city to write their names and addresses on ledgers to be collected by the Police Department.

The council voted 4 to 2 in May to repeal the ordinance after Pasadena police declared it useless. However, the council agreed to wait for gun control advocates to submit an alternative proposal before taking the required second vote to repeal the law.