Council Panel Supports Limits on Gun Purchases

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 straw purchasers from funneling fire arms to criminals, according to 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. “We continue to lose our young people to the streets because guns are easily accessible to them,” Ensley said.

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. Under the proposed measure, anyone who buys a gun anywhere in the state will be prohibited for 30 days from buying a gun in Los Angeles.

The LAPD endorsed the measure, with Muldorfer telling the panel that “straw purchasers” have been caught buying large quantity of weapons and “those guns were turned around or sold on street or provided to felons, underage individuals and were later involved in crime.”

No one testified against the ordinance.