Council Committee OKs Limit on Handgun Sales

Los Angeles gun dealers should be prohibited from selling more than one handgun to any buyer per month, a City Council panel recommended Wednesday.

The action followed more than an hour of sometimes emotional testimony about how some people legally buy firearms and then sell them to minors or felons not authorized to own guns.

Imposing a limit would hinder such straw purchasers from funneling firearms to criminals, said LAPD Det. Steve Muldorfer and Councilman Mike Feuer, the chairman of the committee.

“We have an opportunity here to pass an ordinance that will truly have an impact on the street in limiting the flow of handguns into the hands of criminals and kids,” said Feuer, whose Arts, Health and Humanities Committee approved the ordinance.

Testifying in favor was Margaret Ensley, who founded the group Mothers Against Violence In Schools after her son, Michael, was shot to death in 1993.

“The idea of keeping guns out of hands of our children is extremely important,” Ensley said. “We continue to lose our young people to the streets because guns are easily accessible to them.”

Feuer said Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer agreed to give gun store owners access to a state computer database that will show whether a buyer has purchased a handgun anywhere in the state in the previous 30 days. Those that have would have to wait 30 days before buying a gun in Los Angeles.

The LAPD endorsed the measure. Muldorfer told the council panel that “straw purchasers” have been caught buying large quantities of weapons and “those guns were turned around and sold on the street or provided to felons” and minors and were later used in crimes.

A similar proposal by Assemblyman Wally Knox (D-Los Angeles) failed to win passage in the state Legislature last year.

No one testified against the ordinance, but Sam Paredes of the group Gun Owners of California said later in a telephone interview that the measure is misguided and would probably be challenged in court.

The measure was endorsed by City Atty. James Hahn, who also called for litigation against gun manufacturers to hold them liable for gun violence.

New Orleans and Chicago have already filed lawsuits, using product liability and public nuisance laws effectively employed against tobacco companies in the past.

Hahn told the council panel that he has formed a task force with attorneys from San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose and San Diego to explore the legal remedies available under state law.

He said laws regarding product liability, unfair business practices and deceptive advertising are all being explored, including showing that gun owners have made a conscious decision not to design safe guns with trigger locks and other safety devises.

“Obviously taking on the gun industry in litigation is going to be a lot of work,” Hahn said. “We’re going to have to be right. They are going to hire the best law firms they can hire but I believe it’s something that needs to be done.

Feuer suggested that gun manufacturers might be required to pay the city for part of the cost of gun violence. He said it costs $900 per incident just for the initial police and fire response to a gun-violence incident.